Since quitting life as senior royals in 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made various criticisms about royal life in the UK. However, while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed just how unhappy they were at times as royals in their 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan, it seems that not all was bad.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry, 40, said that the couple loved their home Frogmore Cottage, which they had to return the keys to in 2023. The prince made a surprising remark about the home in his book, which has recently been offered by King Charles to his younger brother Prince Andrew in a bid to get him to downsize from Royal Lodge.
While the house is apparently “not grand enough” for the Duke of York, it seemed to fit the bill for Harry and Meghan, who lived there after marrying in 2018.
Talking about the couple’s Windsor cottage in his book Spare, Harry gave a surprising four-word verdict, saying: “We loved that place.”
He continued: “From the first minute. It felt as if we were destined to live there. We couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning, go for a long walk in the gardens, check in with the swans. Especially grumpy Steve.
“We met the Queen’s gardeners, got to know their names and the names of all the flowers. They were thrilled at how much we appreciated, and praised, their artistry.”
The couple lived in the cottage for less than two years, leaving it behind in 2020 to move to Montecito in California.
They still held the keys to the cottage until 2023, and are believed to have stayed there in a visit to the UK in 2022 with their children Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
It is believed that the couple both loved the cottage, which was gifted to them by the late Queen Elizabeth II, with Harry thinking it was going to be his “forever home”.
At the moment, the house is believed to be vacant, with Prince Andrew refusing to move there from the nearby 30-bed Royal Lodge mansion.
Property buying agent Robin Edwards from Curetons told GB News: “He (Andrew) has refused to leave his lavish mansion and move to the significantly smaller Frogmore Cottage, believing it to be not grand enough for him.”