Frogmore Cottage, the home once owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, remains empty more than a year after the couple were forced to hand over the keys.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will move out of their luxury five-bedroom mansion in June 2023 and the home has not had any new occupants since, the annual Sovereign Grant announcement said.
“Frogmore Cottage has remained empty over the past year and we do not believe it is possible at this time to speculate as to who the future occupants of the cottage may be,” a palace official said. He told the Daily Mail.
The house is vacant because Prince Charles’ scandal-scarred brother, Prince Andrew, has refused to move into the house, which is much smaller than his current home.
The Duke of York, 64, has lived in the $38 million Royal Lodge on the grounds of Windsor Castle since 2004, having signed a 75-year lease the previous year.
The disgraced heir to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was named in January’s Jeffrey Epstein documents release, had been at risk of eviction from the luxurious royal residence since her friendship with the late pedophile financier was revealed in 2019.
He has reportedly neglected to make payments to maintain the Grade II listed building, which requires $503,000 a year in maintenance costs.
Royal Lodge belonged to Queen Elizabeth until her death in 2002. Prince Andrew co-owns the 31-room Windsor mansion with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
He was offered the option of moving to Frogmore Cottage, despite having no apparent source of income, but he turned it down.
Before Prince Charles, 75, offered the mansion to Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan were given the lease on the home as a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex quickly attracted outrage when they spent £2.8 million of taxpayers’ money renovating their home, but ended up footing the bill themselves after a public backlash.
After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex vacated the property, They will try to recoup the $2.8 million they spent on renovations.
“When Frogmore Cottage was originally offered to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Sovereign Grant reimbursed the full cost of renovations, so there are no costs to Sovereign Grant apart from routine maintenance, which any building would require,” a source told the Daily Mail.
The grant will cover staff salaries, the maintenance of the palace, and royal duties.
Last summer, the couple were asked to hand over the keys to the cottage, which they thought would “always be there for us.”
Prince Charles began eviction proceedings from the Grade II Crown Estate property in January 2023, just a day after the publication of Prince Harry’s explosive memoir, “Spare.”
Since being evicted from Frogmore Cottage in June 2023, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle do not have a permanent place to stay in their home town.
The two are currently They share a $14 million mansion in Montecito, California with their son, Prince Archie, and daughter, Princess Lilibeth.
