Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Are Losing Their Wedding Gift from Queen Elizabeth II

Most guests gift the newlyweds a new set of sheets or a cast-iron skillet, but Queen Elizabeth II gave Prince Harry and Meghan Markle the ultimate wedding present: a house. After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said “I do” in 2018, the former monarch commemorated the occasion by offering them Frogmore Cottage, a 10-bedroom house in Home Park, Windsor. Now, King Charles III is giving the property to Prince Andrew, The Independent reports. A source confirms to Page Six that Charles began the eviction process in January of 2023, just one day after Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, hit the shelves. “This eviction surely spells the end of Harry and Meghan’s time in the U.K.,” a source tells The Sun.

Although Harry and Meghan relocated to California in 2020, they were still the rightful owners of the United Kingdom property for the past few years. Since the couple still has some of their belongings stored in their former home across the pond, they are shipping them to their current house in California, the outlet says. Sources close to Harry and Meghan reveal that they’re “stunned” about the decision to move them out. “It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment,” a friend of the couple tells Yahoo News. “It’s like [they] want to cut them out of the picture for good.” The Duke and Duchess haven’t been offered another property on the estate, Page Six notes.  

According to The Sun, the Duke of York is adamant about staying in his current home that he has lived in since 2003, which is a 30-bedroom property at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park. The Independent reports that Andrew signed a 75-year lease and has invested millions on maintenance. “Andrew is resisting the idea of moving into Frogmore Cottage after he was offered it last week,” the source tells The Sun. “But it shows Harry and Meghan are powerless to stop the eviction.”

A day before the eviction news, Harry made a surprise appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where he answered 15 burning questions. When host Stephen Colbert asked Harry to share his favorite smell, Harry answered, “My wife.” Harry also revealed that his favorite sandwich is a “cheese and ham toastie with dijon mustard on top” and that he’s afraid of snakes. “I don't like sharks, but at least they're contained to the ocean,” he admitted. “Snakes can get anywhere." He also noted that his most-used app is the BetterUp coaching platform, and he wants to come back to earth as an elephant after he dies because he believes in reincarnation. To wrap up the conversation, Harry described the rest of his life as having the qualities of “freedom, happiness, clarity, space, love.”

This appearance was a lot more lighthearted than his previous segment on the show. In January of 2023, Harry sat down with Colbert to talk about Spare. During their conversation, Harry opened up about the therapeutic writing process, the worldwide obsession with the royal family, and what Princess Diana would make of it if she were alive today. When Colbert asked Harry how Diana would have handled the tension between him and Prince Charles, Harry responded, “It's impossible to say where we would be now, where those relationships would be now, but there is no way that the distance between my brother and I would be the same.”