Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly being kicked out of their UK home, Frogmore Cottage, to make way for Prince Andrew, according to an exclusive in The Sun.
The British outlet revealed on Tuesday that King Charles is “evicting” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from their residence near Windsor Castle.
A spokesperson for the royal couple confirmed to HuffPost on Wednesday: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.”
His disgraced brother, the Duke of York, has purportedly been offered the opportunity to live in the cottage, as his time at his longtime residence, Royal Lodge, will be up soon.
The Sun reports that Buckingham Palace and Charles began the process of asking Harry and Meghan to leave following the publication of the duke’s memoir, Spare, which came out in January.
Sources also confirmed the news to reporter and Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie, who revealed the royal couple are said to be “stunned” and two other members of the royal family are “appalled”.
“It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment,” an anonymous friend of the Sussexes told Scobie for an article published in Yahoo on Wednesday. “It’s like [the family] want to cut them out of the picture for good.”
HuffPost has reached out to Archewell and Buckingham Palace for further comment.
Harry and Meghan moved to Frogmore Cottage in 2018, ahead of the arrival of their son, Archie.
The property presented one press saga after another for the couple, after they were accused of making extensive, expensive renovations to the home.
Following the couple’s step back in 2020 and their move to California, the two later repaid the roughly £2.4 million needed for renovations.
While the couple have not yet publicly responded to reports about their being asked to leave Frogmore Cottage, they have been busy with some of their first engagements following initial media interviews to promote Harry’s book.
The prince will be participating in a live, virtual talk with physician and author Dr Gabor Maté on March 4, according to an announcement last week. The two are set to “discuss living with loss and the importance of personal healing”, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Just days after the event, the royal will speak at coaching platform BetterUp’s Uplift conference. The duke has served at BetterUp’s chief impact officer since March 2021.
Also last week, Harry presented Nabiha Syed with this year’s NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award.
The Duke of Sussex surprised Syed, who is the CEO of The Markup, with the honor via Zoom. The news was revealed on Friday, one day before the official NAACP Image Awards show. Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, also presented the award alongside Harry.
The royals’ Archewell Foundation helps fund the award, which was presented for the first time at the 2022 NAACP Image Awards to Safiya Noble.
At last year’s awards show, Harry and Meghan were given an honour of their own: the prestigious President’s Award, which is “presented in recognition of distinguished public service”.
Previous honorees of the President’s Award include Condoleezza Rice, Rihanna, Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson and others.