Harry loses home on royal family’s estate

LONDON: Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are being evicted from their home on the British royal family’s Windsor estate, leaving them without a UK base, reports said on Wednesday.

The use of Frogmore Cottage was a wedding present from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, and they refurbished it at a reported cost of $2.9 million.

It has now been offered to Prince Andrew, King Charles III’s disgraced brother, reports in The Sun and Daily Telegraph said.

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were reportedly told to vacate the property in January just days after the publication of the prince’s tell-all memoir “Spare”.

Harry’s father Charles, who has long favoured a slimmed-down monarchy, has been undertaking an overhaul of family finances since his mother’s death in September.

A possible axing of Andrew’s 250,000-a-year grant could see him forced out of his current residence, the 30-room Royal Lodge, also on the Windsor estate, due to its massive upkeep costs.

Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer Omid Scobie, quoting a source, wrote on Yahoo News that the couple had “until early summer to vacate”.

“Initially they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation” in May, he said, adding the couple had not yet heard if they will be invited to Charles’s crowning.

Scobie also quoted a friend of the couple as saying “it all feels very final and like a cruel punishment”. “It’s like [the royal family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.”

Harry and Meghan moved to California in 2020 after dramatically quitting royal life. They have since taken part in a string of projects — from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a Netflix documentary — airing grievances about their experiences as royals.

“Spare” smashed sales records when it was published in January, but also saw Harry’s popularity ratings slump on both sides of the Atlantic.