Harry had wanted a castle, not a cottage
PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle were hoping to live in Windsor Castle, according to bombshell claims in a new book, and were disappointed when they were gifted Frogmore Cottage in the grounds.
According to royal expert Kate Nicholl’s new book, The New Royals, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were hoping to move into a “suite of apartments at Windsor Castle” following their announcement they were moving out of Kensington Palace.
“When Harry and Meghan announced their wish to move out of Kensington Palace, the Queen offered them Frogmore Cottage in Windsor Great Park as their new home,” Ms Nicholl writes.
A close friend of the Queen, Lady Elizabeth Anson, recalled the gifting of Frogmore Cottage to the Sussexes to be a “generous gesture nonetheless”, before she died in 2020.
“The cottage was a big deal, the Queen’s entrance into the gardens is right next to their cottage,” Lady Anson said.
“It is essentially her back yard, her solitude, and her privacy. She was giving that up in gifting Harry and Meghan Frogmore Cottage. We all thought it was very big of her.”
The couple, who have since moved to the US, settled into the cottage in April 2019.
Nicholl’s book makes further explosive claims about the royal family, including the Queen’s disappointment when Prince Harry and Ms Markle decided to move their household from Kensington Palace.
Further claims made in the new book imply the Queen was shocked by the Duchess of Sussex’s pure white wedding dress, adding to ongoing claims of tension within the royal family.
“According to a source, the Queen was surprised that Meghan wore pure white on her wedding day. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but she believes if you’ve been married before, you wear off-white on your wedding day, which is what the Duchess of Cornwall did,” Nicholls wrote.