Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Will Stay at Frogmore Cottage
Update 1/18: Buckingham Palace has released an official statement with details of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's next steps. The statement confirms that Frogmore Cottage will continue to be their family's home in the United Kingdom and explains that they hope to take over some financial responsibilities for the property.
"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their UK family home," the statement says.
Original post: In a bombshell statement released Wednesday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they're effectively quitting the royal family, with plans to become financially independent and split their time between the U.K. and North America. Their primary U.K. residence, Frogmore Cottage, underwent a $3 million renovation before Archie's birth—so will they stay there now they're no longer "senior" members of the royal family?
Short answer: Yes. On their website, which has had a serious makeover in light of the news, Harry and Meghan address the question directly.
Here's Frogmore Cottage:
The Duke and Duchess chose to move out of their former residence at Kensington Palace last year. There was speculation at that time that Harry and Meghan were moving away from KP (where Prince William and Kate Middleton live) because of a rift between the Sussexes and the Cambridges, but information on the Sussex Royal website gives a different reason: renovation issues.
At present, Harry and Meghan have a small team of staff working for them at Frogmore, though this will almost certainly change when they begin to split their time between North America and the U.K. It's not clear whether they'll continue to employ the same staff as they move toward financial independence.
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Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia, which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.
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