Queen Elizabeth’s 11-Word Warning to Prince Harry About Frogmore Cottage
Queen Elizabeth II had some things to say about Frogmore Cottage before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited what would become their U.K. residence for the first time. What the queen had to say about the “historic” property and why she was “right.”
Queen Elizabeth ‘warned’ Harry Frogmore Cottage was ‘a bit of a shell’ before he and Meghan saw it
The Duke of Sussex shared how he and the Duchess of Sussex came to live at Frogmore Cottage in his Spare memoir. Kensington Palace’s Nottingham Cottage, he wrote, was “charming but too small” for them, “two rambunctious dogs,” and a now-4-year-old Prince Archie “on the way.”
Harry went to Queen Elizabeth about his and Meghan’s “housing situation.” His late grandmother, who died in September 2022, “gave it a think” before offering up Frogmore Cottage.
At first, Harry recalled, he thought the queen meant Frogmore House, where he and Meghan took their 2017 engagement photos. “No, no — Frogmore Cottage. Near Frogmore House,” the queen told him. “Sort of hidden, she said. Tucked away.”
The queen called it a “lovely place,” “historic,” “part of the Crown Estate,” and “very sweet,” Harry recalled, saying he liked the idea of being nearby Frogmore’s gardens where he and Meghan walked “often.”
Then came the queen’s word of caution. “She warned: It’s a bit of a building site. Bit of a shell. But go and have a look and do tell me if it works.”
Harry and Meghan ventured to the property the same day and, as Harry recalled, “Granny was right.”
“The house spoke to us both,” Harry said in Spare. “Charming, full of potential. Hard by the Royal Burial Ground, but so what? Didn’t bother me or Meg. We wouldn’t disturb the dead if they’d promise not to disturb us.”
“Frogmore Cottage would be a dream come true,” Harry recalled later telling Queen Elizabeth over the phone before thanking her “profusely.”
With the queen’s “permission,” Harry and Meghan “began sitting down with builders, planning the minimum renovations, to make the place habitable — piping, heating, water.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially moved out of Frogmore Cottage
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a U.K. residence no more. Harry and Meghan have officially vacated Frogmore Cottage, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in a June 28 press briefing about the royal family’s Sovereign Grant Report (via Daily Telegraph).
The spokesperson said Harry and Meghan had gotten the last of their things from Frogmore Cottage and, as the outlet reported, “paid for the expenditure incurred by the Sovereign Grant in relation to the renovation of Frogmore Cottage, thus leaving the Crown with a greatly enhanced asset.”
This follows on the heels of Harry and Meghan’s March 2023 announcement they’d been asked to leave Frogmore Cottage. After stepping down as senior working royals in 2020 and relocating to their current home in Montecito, California, the property remained Harry and Meghan’s U.K. residence.
The now-parents of two also repaid the $3.2 million from the Sovereign Grant spent on making Frogmore Cottage inhabitable while footing the bill for redecorating.
Who will live at Frogmore Cottage after Harry and Meghan isn’t clear
The question of Frogmore Cottage’s next inhabitants remains. Will it be the king’s 63-year-old brother, Prince Andrew? Per the Daily Telegraph, the Buckingham Palace spokesperson declined to comment on the speculation surrounding the Duke of York leaving the Royal Lodge.
“No decision has been made on the future occupant of Frogmore Cottage at this point,” the spokesperson said.
So, for now, Frogmore Cottage is empty.
