Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's former U.K. home of Frogmore Cottage faces an uncertain future, as it remains empty more than a year after the couple was asked to return the property to the crown.
In 2020, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex split from the monarchy, they announced their intention to retain the cottage as their U.K. home. However, in March 2023, two months after the publication of Harry's memoir, Spare, a spokesperson confirmed that the couple had been "requested to vacate their residence."
Since then, reports have circulated in the British press that King Charles III wishes to move his younger brother Prince Andrew into cottage and out of his larger home on the Windsor estate.
On Tuesday, a Buckingham Palace official said the cottage remains vacant, the Daily Mirror reported, so it appears the king has not yet won his way. Newsweek has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment via email.
"Prince Andrew is supposed to be moving in," Jack Royston, Newsweek's chief royal correspondent, told Sky News anchor Kay Burley of the cottage on Wednesday.
He continued: "Charles wants him to move in. He is refusing to move in, and Charles so far is not winning this battle.
"This is Harry and Meghan's former home. They were evicted almost instantly after Harry's book came out, and then they finally cleared out around spring or summer, round about the time of the coronation."
Royston added that since then the king has "been trying to get his brother to move out of a gargantuan and not that externally attractive mansion called Royal Lodge in Windsor."
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into Frogmore Cottage in 2019 before the birth of their son, Prince Archie. The use of the property in the grounds of Windsor Castle was offered to them by Queen Elizabeth II.
Structural work prior to their moving in was paid for out of the sovereign grant—money given to the monarch to undertake their duties as head of state—and the couple paid for surface redecoration, including the fixtures and fittings, out of their private funds.
After their split from the monarchy, they repaid the public money spent on the cottage.
The lodge was built on the site of a former royal hunting lodge and was the home of Charles' grandmother Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother until her death in 2002.
In 2003, the lease for the mansion was taken over by Prince Andrew, who was required to renovate the property and keep up its maintenance to a standard approved by the crown estate.
"[The lodge] is outside of the security perimeter and therefore needs its own security arrangements," Royston told Burley of the property, where Andrew lives in with ex-wife, Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson.
"It's all very expensive," Royston continued, adding that time would tell whether Charles facilitates his brother's move. "We'll see whether an unstoppable force can move the immovable object."
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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