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TL;DR: 

  • Author Tina Brown said Princess Diana continued to live at Kensington Palace because she knew it was “enormously important.” 
  • “Unlike Harry and Meghan, she understood having the power base of monarchy,” the royal expert said.
  • Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle lived at Kensington Palace.
  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have lived in California since 2020.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle, and England behind when they stepped back as senior royals. However, Princess Diana maintained her royal residence when she and Prince Charles split. According to the author and royal expert, Tina Brown, she considered it “enormously important.” Whereas when her son and daughter-in-law broke away from the royal family, they didn’t stay in the U.K. Rather, they packed their bags and headed to the U.S. to start a new life. 

Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle called Kensington Palace home

Kensington Palace has long been home to many British royals including Diana, Harry, and Meghan. Apartments eight and nine at Kensington Palace served as Diana’s official residence during her marriage to Charles. 

Made up of three floors, Diana’s home was much more expansive than the one Harry and Meghan would later come to occupy. Harry and Prince William’s nursery took up the entire third floor, per Architectural Digest. Glimpses inside the residence were seen in various photographs and interviews during Charles and Diana’s marriage. 

Meanwhile, Meghan moved into Nottingham Cottage, or “Nott Cott,” with Harry after their 2017 engagement. It’s also where Harry proposed. Previously a bachelor pad for Harry, the two-bedroom home is located adjacent to the Kensington Palace apartments and staff housing.

It remained their home — complete with a kitchen, small living room, bathroom, and garden — until they moved to Frogmore Cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle in 2019.

Princess Diana understood the ‘power base of monarchy’

According to Brown, Diana knew the importance of the monarchy’s “power base” by way of a palace address. “She kept Kensington Palace as her base,” the Palace Papers author told The Daily Beast.

“Unlike Harry and Meghan, she understood having the power base of monarchy was enormously important,” she explained.

Diana retained Apartments eight and nine in her divorce settlement with Charles. She continued living there until her death on Aug. 31, 1997. As for Harry and Meghan, after they stepped back as working royals in 2020, they didn’t keep a royal residence as their home base. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have lived in California since 2020

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who don't understand 'power' of having monarchy as 'base' like Princess Diana according to Tina Brown, leave a national service of Thanksgiving
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Matt Dunham – WPA Pool/Getty Images
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex started a new life in the U.S. in the summer of 2020. They bought a $14.7 million-dollar mansion in Montecito, California. 

However, it wasn’t exactly a smooth transition from one home to the next. Harry and Meghan had been in Canada when safety and security reasons forced them to move. Eventually, they left Vancouver Island by way of Tyler Perry’s private jet and stayed in one of his Beverly Hills homes. 

Ultimately, they settled in at their 19,000-square-foot mansion where they currently live with their two children — Archie and Lilibet — dogs and rescue chickens. 

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