LONDON: The United Kingdom’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are being evicted from their home on his family’s Windsor estate, a spokesman said on Wednesday, leaving them without a British base.
The use of Frogmore Cottage was a wedding present from the late Queen Elizabeth 2nd in May 2018, and they refurbished it at a reported cost of £2.4 million ($2.9 million).
It has now been offered to Prince Andrew, King Charles 3rd’s disgraced brother, according to reports in The Sun and Daily Telegraph newspapers.
“We can confirm [that] the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” a spokesman for the United States-based couple said without providing more details, using the couple’s official titles.
Harry and Meghan were reportedly told to vacate the property in January, just days after the publication of the prince’s tell-all memoir Spare.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Harry’s father Charles, who has long favored a slimmed-down monarchy, has been undertaking an overhaul of family finances since his mother’s death last September 8.
A possible axing of Andrew’s annual grant of £250,000 a year could see him forced out of his current residence, the 30-room Royal Lodge, also on the Windsor estate, because of its huge upkeep costs.
Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer Omid Scobie, quoting a source, wrote on Yahoo News that the couple had “until early summer to vacate.”
“Initially, they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation” in May, Scobie wrote, adding that the couple had not yet heard if they would be invited to Charles’ coronation.
Scobie also quoted a friend of the couple as saying “it all feels very final and like a cruel punishment.”
“It’s like [the royal family] want to cut them out of the picture for good,” the friend added.
Harry and Meghan moved to California in 2020 after dramatically quitting royal life.
They have since taken part in a string of projects — from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a Netflix docuseries — airing grievances about their experiences as royals.
Spare smashed sales records when it was published in January, but also saw Harry’s popularity ratings slump on both sides of the Atlantic.
Andrew, meanwhile, was forced out of public life over his friendship with the late convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Last year, Andrew settled a US civil case for sexual assault with accuser Virginia Giuffre.