The new Sovereign Grant Report raised speculation about the status of Frogmore Cottage
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s former Frogmore Cottage home in the U.K. remains empty more than a year after the couple was asked to vacate.
On July 24, The Royal Household published the Sovereign Grant Report for the 2023-2024 financial year, unveiling the partially taxpayer-funded sum spent to support King Charles‘ official duties and maintain the occupied royal palaces. Curiosity around the status of Frogmore Cottage in light of the new report prompted the palace to clarify that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s former residence is still empty.
“I don’t think, at this point, I would speculate on who will be the future occupants of the cottage,” an official said at a briefing, according to The Independent.
“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 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.”
Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, lived at Frogmore Cottage from 2019 to 2020, upgrading from their two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London before the birth of their first child, Prince Archie, in May 2019. The family of three moved out of Frogmore after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their working royal roles in early 2020. The Sussexes briefly stayed in Canada before settling in Meghan’s home state of California, where daughter Princess Lilibet was born in 2021.
In March 2023, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told PEOPLE the couple had been asked to leave the residence.
“We can confirm The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” the spokesperson said at the time.
It has been speculated that King Charles wants his brother, Prince Andrew, to vacate his Royal Lodge residence on the Windsor Castle grounds and move into Frogmore Cottage.
Frogmore Cottage was understood to be a bit of a fixer-upper, and royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously told PEOPLE the property was “pretty dilapidated” before they moved in.
The home was built in 1801 under the direction of Queen Charlotte and the property was extensively renovated for Prince Harry and Meghan, with construction that took it from a former staff residence into a single-family home. The renovation became a hot topic when they announced their decision to step back in 2020 because the renovation was paid for by the Sovereign Grant, funded from taxpayers.
When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their plans to step back in 2020, they made clear their wish to repay the Sovereign Grant for the Frogmore flip. Buckingham Palace said that the residence would “remain their U.K. family home.”
Prince Harry and Meghan “fully covered” the renovation cost of Frogmore, which was reported to be around $3 million, later that year. The offer to settle their debts was made “proactively” by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a source told PEOPLE at the time, adding that the couple wanted to ensure that there was no ongoing drain on public monies as they worked to become financially independent.
It’s standard practice for the royal residences to be renovated if necessary before new tenants move in. It emerged in 2014 that the Sovereign Grant paid over $7 million to refurbish Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s Kensington Palace apartment, including expensive asbestos removal.
In June 2023, Prince Harry and Meghan were officially out of Frogmore Cottage.
“We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have vacated Frogmore Cottage. The Duke and Duchess have repaid the expenditure incurred by the Sovereign Grant in relation to the renovation of Frogmore Cottage, thus leaving the Crown with a greatly enhanced asset,” Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Michael Stevens said in recent briefings. The last of the couple’s things were shipped out to their California home, The Sun reported at the time.
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After Harry and Meghan settled in the U.S. in 2020, the Duke of Sussex’s cousin Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank moved into Frogmore Cottage before their first child, son August, was born in February 2021. In 2022, the couple began to divide their time between the U.K. and Portugal after Jack got a new job abroad.
When Prince Harry and Meghan visited England in June 2022 with Archie and Lilibet for Queen Elizabeth‘s Platinum Jubilee, they stayed at Frogmore and celebrated their daughter’s first birthday with a backyard party there.
The Duke of Sussex stayed at the cottage in June 2023 when he traveled to London to testify against Mirror Group Newspapers for alleged unlawful information gathering. He won the lawsuit later last year.
