As much as King Charles III may want Prince Andrew to move to Frogmore Cottage, it remains vacant. That’s right; no one is living in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former U.K. home. Palace officials revealed in an annual report filing that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s one-time home had had no new tenants since they officially left the property in the summer of 2023.
Frogmore Cottage is still ‘empty’ after Harry and Meghan moved out
Harry and Meghan have lived in Montecito, California, since leaving royal life in 2020. However, it wasn’t until the summer of 2023 that they crossed Frogmore Cottage out as their official U.K. home.
Now, with the release of the annual Sovereign Grant, it’s been revealed the Windsor, England, home, which underwent millions in renovations, has since had no new tenants.
“During the year, Frogmore Cottage has remained empty,” a palace source said (via Express). “I don’t think, at this point, I would speculate on who will be the future occupants of the cottage.”
“The Sovereign Grant has been fully reimbursed for the refurbishment costs of Frogmore Cottage when it was initially provided to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” they continued.
Harry and Meghan paid back the $3.2 million of taxpayer funds used to update the cottage after the late Queen Elizabeth II gifted them the lease. (Harry recalled his grandmother describing the home as “a bit of a shell” in his Spare memoir.)
“And, therefore, there is no cost to the Sovereign Grant other than some routine maintenance. But it would be required for any of the buildings.”
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie occasionally stay at Frogmore Cottage
Frogmore Cottage | Leon Neal/Getty Images
While the cottage does not have a full-time resident, Harry’s cousins, Princess Beatrice, 35, and Princess Eugenie, 34, use it from time to time when they’re in Windsor.
“Royal residences are like a hotel. Members of the family can check in and out as they please,” the source said. “Nobody owns a property.”
“So if it’s free at any given time, the royal makes a request through the Crown Estate. And they are granted access. There is a pecking order, of course, and the more senior royals get priority,” they added.
Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, along with their daughter, Sienna, and Beatrice’s stepson, Christopher ‘Wolfie’ Woolf, live between the Cotswolds and London, England. Meanwhile, Eugenie, her husband, Jack Brooksbank, and their two sons, August and Ernest, primarily live in Portugal.
Harry and Meghan officially moved out in June 2023
Frogmore Cottage remained the couple’s U.K. residence until June 29, 2023, the date Harry later listed as the start of his official U.S. residency. On that day, palace courtier Sir Michael Stevens “confirm[ed] that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have vacated” the home.
The January 2023 release of Spare—and its explosive contents—reportedly spurred King Charles to get them out for good.
Meghan recalled the “surreal” experience of packing up their things in a 2022 interview with The Cut. “You go back, and you open drawers, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is what I was writing in my journal there?’ And here’s all my socks from this time?”
