Harry's brutal insult to grace and favour house he and Meghan called home

04 January 2024 , 09:33

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Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal life in January 2020 (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Prince Harry once made a scathing remark about Frogmore Cottage, the grace-and-favour home he and his wife received from the Queen following their marriage in 2018.

The property was gifted to the couple by the late monarch in 2019 and was subsequently converted into a four-bedroom-and-nursery single-family home ahead of the birth of their first child, Archie.

Less than six months after moving in, however, Harry and Meghan announced their decision to step down as working royals and went on to settle down in Montecito, California. Despite their relocation to America in 2020, Frogmore Cottage had stayed with the couple until last year, when it was returned to the Crown.

Frogmore Cottage was given to the couple as a gift from the late Queen (ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES)

In June 2023, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple had officially vacated Frogmore Cottage, located on King Charles's Windsor estate. It was reported that the King handed them an eviction notice following the publication of Harry's memoir, Spare.

Royal fans were given unprecedented glimpses inside Frogmore Cottage for the very first time in Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary, with Meghan seen painting her nails in the kitchen and the couple seen sharing a kiss while she sat on a kitchen worktop.

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They also spoke about living at the property - with both Harry and Meghan describing the Grade II listed house as "so small". Harry said in an interview for the series: "The whole thing is on a slight lean, [with] really low ceilings. So I don't know who was there before but they must have been very short." Meghan laughed, revealing Harry would "hit his head constantly because he is so tall".

Clips also showed Harry and Meghan doing DIY, with the Duke varnishing a summer house and Meghan doing some gardening. In his recent book, Endgame, Omid Scobie made the claim that it had been Princess Anne who had persuaded Charles to evict the couple.

He alleged that Anne was "at the forefront of the supporters of the firm approach" taken by the Palace in them vacating the property. The news was then delivered to the couple via a letter from Sir Michael John Stevens, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, who told them that they should hand back the cottage as they were no longer working royals and were living abroad.

According to Scobie's controversial book, the request was said to have been met with a furious response from Prince Harry, who reportedly asked Charles: "You don't want to see your grandchildren any more?"

Gemma Strong