Harry and Meghan have been 'requested to vacate' Frogmore Cottage, says Sussexes' spokesperson
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have allegedly been asked to “vacate” their UK home, the couple have confirmed.
Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson said a “request” had been made for the Sussexes to give up Frogmore Cottage close to Windsor Castle.
Reports have claimed the move was sanctioned by the King and it will remove their remaining foothold in the UK and further weaken ties with the royal family.
A spokesperson for the couple said: “We can confirm the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.”
The alleged request to vacate the Grade-II listed property which is owned by the Crown Estate and was a gift from Harry’s grandmother the Queen, comes just weeks after Harry’s damning book Spare was released.
The Sussexes currently live in California, after moving there in 2020, with their two children, Archie and Lilibet.
In 2019, royal accounts revealed Meghan and Harry paid £2.4 million to cover the refurbishment and rental of Frogmore Cottage, on the Home Park Estate at Windsor Castle, a property they have used a handful of times since relocating to the US.
The couple were funding the general up-keep of their former home, like maintaining the garden, and were continuing to pay rent, a rental contract described as a “good deal” for the taxpayer by a senior palace source in 2022.
Omid Scobie, author of Harry and Meghan biography Finding Freedom, claimed sources told him someone else needed Frogmore Cottage. He wrote in Yahoo News on Wednesday: “The property, they were told, is needed for someone else."
Buckingham Palace has not commented.
The news of the alleged eviction follows damning allegations from Harry and Meghan about the royal family after a series of tell-all interviews, a documentary by the couple on Netflix, and Prince Harry's controversial memoir, Spare.
In Harry’s ghost-written tell-all autobiography, he laid bare his frustrations with his family.
He claimed his brother William, now the Prince of Wales, had knocked him to the floor at Harry’s then home Nottingham Cottage after calling Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”.
The duke claimed his father, now the King, put his own interests above Harry’s and was jealous of Meghan and the Princess of Wales, and that the Queen Consort sacrificed him on “her personal PR altar”.
The duke later revealed he has enough material for two books, but held back because he does not think his father and brother would “ever forgive” him.
The development throws more doubt on whether the Sussexes will receive an invite to the King's coronation in May, and whether they will attend if they do.
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