Prince Harry and Meghan Markle paid back £2.4 million of taxpayer money that was spent on refurbishing Frogmore Cottage, as they wanted to completely cut themselves off from being working royals.
The couple were gifted the home by the late Queen Elizabeth following their wedding in 2018, but there was an outcry when money from the Sovereign Grant was spent on renovating it for them.
However, Harry and Meghan paid back every single penny in order not to “justify” the British tabloids having access to their lives, according to a royal author.
In his book Battle of the Brothers, published in 2020, Robert Lacey wrote: “It was crucial that they should pay off – and should clearly be seen to pay off – the £2.4million that had become a persecutory refrain in almost every story about their base at Windsor.
“As they would later explain via sussexroyal.com, the website that they developed during their Vancouver sabbatical, coming off the Sovereign Grant – the royal payroll financed by the British taxpayer – would ‘remove the tabloids” justification in having access to their lives.”
Despite being based in the US, the Duke and Duchess would still use Frogmore as a UK base, staying there whenever they were in the country.
But shortly after Harry published his memoir Spare in January 2023, the King asked the couple to vacate the property which has remained empty ever since.
It was confirmed in the recent release of the Sovereign Grant report, which details the Royal Family’s finances for the year, that Frogmore has no new tenants.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “I think at this point I wouldn’t speculate on who would be the future occupant of Frogmore Cottage.”
Prince Andrew was reportedly given the option of moving into Frogmore but instead wants to remain at the even bigger Royal Lodge, his home for the last twenty years.
This has not pleased the King however, as a source told The Times earlier this year: “If [Prince Andrew] doesn’t agree to move to a property better suited to his needs, then the King may have to reconsider the levels of support he is willing to provide.”
