Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were gifted Frogmore Cottage by the late Queen in 2019 but it was not long later that they decided to leave for the United States and take their belongings with them

Meghan Markle packed up personal belongings as the Sussexes left Frogmore Cottage before finally handing back the keys a year ago.

The cottage was the first place that Prince Harry and wife Meghan lived while part of the royal family. The couple were gifted Frogmore Cottage in 2019 by the late Queen Elizabeth, and paid for an extensive renovation independently after initially using taxpayers’ money and then repaying it.

But their time in the five-bedroom house was short-lived as by the end of 2019 they had announced their decision to leave the royal family and vacated in 2020.

The Sussexes headed to the United States and have set up home in Montecito, California, where they have been critical of other members of the royal family in a series of interviews to the American media. It has created plenty of friction that has no signs of easing.

Harry appears to have adapted to life in the US and while he rushed back to see his dad Charles when his cancer diagnosis was revealed, he did not see him the next time he was in the UK in May for an Invictus Games ceremony.

Meghan told how she was packing up personal belongings from Frogmore Cottage back in June 2022 including a diary and she herself was surprised what she had put in at the time.

Frogmore Cottage was gifted to the Sussexes by Queen Elizabeth ( 
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)
“You go back and you open drawers and you’re like, Oh my gosh. This is what I was writing in my journal there?” she told The Cut. And at the time it sparked fears that it could lead to more revelations.

It was a year later that the Sussexes finally handed in the keys to the cottage. In Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare, he claimed that he and Meghan were “evicted” from the cottage after their decision to leave the royal family, with Charles asking them to leave.

The couple’s remaining possessions were shipped to California with courtier Sir Michael Stevens saying at the time in June 2023: “We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have vacated Frogmore Cottage.” This is also the date that Prince Harry lists as officially starting his US residency.

The grand home isn’t expected to lay empty for long as now the King, 75, is said to be urging his disgraced brother, Prince Andrew, to leave his 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor and move into Frogmore Cottage.