Use ‘Megflix’ to pay back £2.4m spent on Frogmore, MPs urge
Couple urged to give up their British home at Windsor after striking £100m US TV deal
MPS are calling for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to “quickly” pay back the £2.4million of public money spent renovating their Windsor home after they signed a multi-million pound deal with Netflix.
Harry and Meghan are also under pressure to “give up” Frogmore Cottage, their UK bolthole, after agreeing to make films and television programmes for a rumoured £100million in a deal that has been dubbed “Megflix”.
The couple, who recently bought a £11million home in Santa Barbara with a £7.5million mortgage, are in the process of paying back the £2.4million at a rate of £18,000 a month, meaning it will take them 11 years to repay the British taxpayer. Sir Geoffrey CliftonBrown, deputy chair of parliament’s public accounts committee, said that agreement should be “modified to pay the money back earlier”.
“Clearly anyone who has borrowed taxpayers’ cash needs to pay it back as quickly as possible. £2.4million is a lot and even if you paid back £250,000 a year it would still take a decade.”
The Tory MP for the Cotswolds added: “If the figures associated with the Netflix deal are correct then there is a case for it being paid back over five years rather than more than 10.
“These sorts of sums are out of the reach of the vast majority of people. While they may be sympathetic to Harry and Meghan’s situation, which is a delicate one, they will think that if the couple aren’t carrying out royal duties
– and making king a lot of money, they should start t paying it back sooner.” Fellow Conservative rvative Bim Afolami, a former member er of the committee, which scrutinises public spending, agreed, saying: “If the Royal family wants to subsidise Harry arry and Meghan that’s fine but the state te should not pay for that. They need to pay the money back now.”
The couple’s ple’s move to the US has also prompted questions over Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, where they lived for or just eight months before stepping down own as senior Royals.
Situated in front of a lake and Frogmore House, e, where the couple hosted their wedding ing reception in May 2018, the Grade-II II five-bedroom property was remodelled elled before the couple moved there e in April 2019.
After a summit ummit to work out the terms of their eir so-called “Megxit’ deal, it was as decided they would keep p the property as their eir UK home by continuontinuing to rent it t from its owner, , the Queen.
Last night, ht, Phil Dampier, a royal commentator, or, asked why the couple could not ot stay at Highgrove House, the Prince of Wales’ Gloucestershire shire home, when visiting ting the UK, freeing up Frogmore Cottage for another other member of the Royal family amily or their staff.
“The place ce has been done up to a high standard. If they are not going to o spend much time in the UK it seems eems ridiculous for it to lay empty,” y,” he said.
He suggested ested Princess Beatrice or Princess s Eugenie, who have both recently tly married and whose parents the Duke and Duchess of York, live nearby, may be interested in renting nting the property.
Sir Geoffrey ffrey said: “Clearly a conversation n needs to take place to determine etermine whether they will use e it enough.”
A spokesman man for the Sussexes was approached pproached for comment.