Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are furious about the fate of their one-time cottage near Windsor Castle, sources close to the couple tell The Royalist.
The Royalist Podcast host Tom Sykes first revealed their fury over the weekend, writing that the couple is peeved at the Crown Estate’s announced plan to reverse their $3 million in renovations at Frogmore Cottage, erasing any traces of their customizations.
The posh piece of royal real estate—located about half a mile from Adelaide Cottage, where William and Kate lived until 2025—has sat empty since Harry and Meghan fully vacated the property in 2023 and moved to Montecito, California.
Sykes contends that Meghan and Harry’s public beef with the royal family left them no choice but to evict the couple and their family from the Windsor grounds.
Had the Sussexes not bashed the family, Sykes estimates that they would still have access to the cottage, which was a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth.
“Had they left and not then spent the next five years chucking rocks at the institution, trying to smash, burn everything down, burn every bridge, I think they would have probably been allowed to keep Frogmore Cottage,” he said. “[If] they hadn’t gone public with all their resentments, they hadn’t made all the films, they hadn’t written the books, they hadn’t called the royal family racist...”
The cottage was renovated by the Sussexes ahead of eldest child Archie’s birth in 2019. Now, those renovations are set to be stripped away, and the house will be converted back into staff apartments.
The renovations were originally paid for by taxpayers, as Frogmore was going to be the official home of the then-working royals. But the costs were repaid by the Sussexes after their break from the royal family.
The Sussexes’ formal eviction in 2023 would never have occurred while the Queen was alive, sources close to the couple tell the Royalist.
“What the Sussex side are telling me now is that King Charles waited until after the Queen had died to kick Harry out,” Sykes said. “And they say that the Queen would have blocked it because it was her wedding gift to them.”
Representatives for the Sussexes did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Sykes says Harry and Meghan are correct to believe the queen would not have had the stomach to exile Harry, just as she was unable to distance the family from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor amid his many scandals and ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“I actually think Harry and Meghan are right about this, because if there was one thing the Queen hated, it was confrontation,” Sykes continued.
However, Sykes says Harry would be wrong to think that things would not change upon the queen’s passing.
“The Sussexes are absolutely right in saying that she would never have allowed them to be kicked out, because she just wouldn’t have had the stomach for that particular fight, I don’t think,” he said of the queen. “At the same time, Harry was incredibly naive to think that the royal family would not pull every lever they could, yes, to punish him, or alternatively, to force him into exile.”
Sykes concluded, “Harry and Meghan actually didn’t give the royal family very much choice other than to evict them from the property.
Join veteran royal correspondent Tom Sykes in the throne room to find out how the secret world of the palace really operates—every bit of royal tea you could need. New Royalist podcasts will be released every Tuesday on YouTube, and the next day on all podcast platforms.
