A spokesperson for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced Wednesday that they are being evicted from their home on the British royal family’s Windsor estate, leaving them without a UK base.
Frogmore Cottage was used as a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, and it was refurbished for a reported cost of £2.4 million ($2.9 million).
According to The Sun and Daily Telegraph, it has now been offered to Prince Andrew, King Charles III’s disgraced brother.
“We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been asked to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” a spokesperson for the couple’s US-based residence said, without going into further detail.
Harry and Meghan were reportedly told to leave the property in January, just days after the prince’s candid memoir “Spare” was released.
Buckingham Palace did not respond.
Since his mother’s death in September, Harry’s father, Charles, who has long advocated for a smaller monarchy, has been overhauling the family finances.
A reduction in Andrew’s annual grant of £250,000 could force him out of his current residence, the 30-room Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate, due to the high maintenance costs.
According to a source, Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer Omid Scobie had “until early summer to vacate,” according to Yahoo News.
“Initially, they were given only weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation” in May, Scobie wrote, adding that the couple had not yet heard whether they would be invited to Charles’ coronation.
“It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment,” a friend of the couple told Scobie.
“It’s as if (the royal family) wants to permanently remove them from the picture.”
After abruptly leaving the royal family, Harry and Meghan relocated to California in 2020.
They have since participated in a number of projects, ranging from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a Netflix documentary, in which they have expressed their dissatisfaction with their lives as royals.
When “Spare” was released in January, it broke sales records, but it also saw Harry’s popularity ratings plummet on both sides of the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, Andrew was forced to leave public life due to his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew settled a sexual assault lawsuit in the United States with accuser Virginia Giuffre last year.
