Harry and Meghan Are Reportedly ‘Stunned” Over the King Evicting Them From Frogmore Cottage

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are well aware that their relationship with King Charles III and the rest of the royal family is fraught—but even so, the monarch evicting them from their UK home reportedly came as quite a shock.

Royal reporter and Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie reported in a new Yahoo column that the Sussex couple was left “stunned” by the eviction order they received at the beginning of this year, timing that coincided very closely with the release of Harry’s bombshell-filled memoir Spare. According to one of Scobie’s sources, Harry and Meghan were reportedly given “until early summer to vacate,” but that wasn’t always the case: “Initially they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation.”

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were given Frogmore Cottage, the UK residence they’re now required to vacate, as a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth II back in 2018, and the couple spent years renovating the residence to turn it into their family home. Even after they stepped back from their royal roles in 2020, they made it clear that they intended to maintain the property as their UK home, and Scobie points out that this had a very practical purpose: It’s the only place in the country with sufficient security now that Harry and Meghan no longer have access to armed police protection.

“With Harry’s High Court challenge against the Home Office over a decision not to allow him to pay for police protection in the UK still in progress, the loss of Frogmore Cottage means that the Sussexes will soon be without a base in the country which provides the level of home security senior members of the Royal Family have access to,” Scobie writes. “No alternative accommodation has been offered.”

The eviction could be a punitive gesture from King Charles III, particularly given the timing of the notice. While The Daily Beast reports Harry’s brother Prince William was allegedly on board for the eviction to go forward, not everyone in the royal family apparently felt the same way. Scobie writes that “at least two members” of the royal family were supposedly “appalled” by the decision—and now that the UK residence has been offered to Prince Andrew as new lodgings while Harry and Meghan clear out their things, it’s unlikely the move has become more popular in royal circles.

“It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment,” a friend of the Sussex couple told Scobie. “It’s like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.”

While the eviction was issued some months ago, it was first reported on by The Sun earlier this week after Charles’s offer to Andrew caused a further stir. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan confirmed the report, telling Page Six that the couple had “been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.” The couple is now reportedly in the process of shipping their furniture and remaining personal items from Frogmore to their California home.

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