Harry and Meghan move in to new home
tHE Duke and Duchess of Sussex have finally moved into their new home in Windsor, weeks before the birth of their first baby.
Last night the couple – and their two dogs – were happily ensconced in Frogmore Cottage, their new country pile on the Queen’s estate in Berkshire, following a massive programme of renovation.
the couple spent the first year of their married life at Nottingham Cottage, Harry’s old bachelor pad in the grounds of Kensington Palace, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as neighbours.
But amid rumours of a growing distance between the two couples, Harry and Meghan decided to move out of London for some rural seclusion.
Frogmore Cottage was in fact a series of five fairly run- down staff residences. But they have been turned back into one residence again in a large-scale project that is rumoured to have cost up to £3million.
It includes a yoga studio for Meghan with a floating floor and a new eco-boiler.
Palace officials have downplayed the final cost but taxpayers will be forced to meet the bill for most of the structural work, with the couple paying for their own fixtures and fittings. Full details will be revealed in the palace’s annual financial report later this year.
the move to Frogmore, which will see them commute into London for work, has coincided with their decision to split their household from that of the Cambridges at Kensington Palace and set up new staff and offices at Buckingham Palace, which are funded by the Queen and Prince Charles.
Aides have insisted this is nothing to do with any alleged falling out but because of the new set-up required by William as a future Prince of Wales.
Yesterday Harry was at the Lord Mayor of London’s annual Curry Lunch to raise money for military veterans and told well-wishers he was ‘excited, very excited’ about the arrival of his first child, due at the end of this month.
Harry and Meghan insist they do not know the sex of their baby and have decided not to follow recent royal tradition by giving birth at the private Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, West London. Instead, it is believed, they have plumped for a hospital closer to their new home.