Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dreamed of starting married life inside Windsor Castle after their royal wedding in 2018. However, a royal author has claimed Queen Elizabeth II had other plans.
Instead of allowing the newlyweds to live inside the historic royal residence, the late monarch reportedly made a firm decision that changed where the Sussexes began their married life.
Harry And Meghan Had Their Eyes On Windsor Castle
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in May 2018. After the wedding, the newlyweds reportedly asked if “living quarters could be made available” inside the castle so they could live there.
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Royal author Hugo Vickers claimed Queen Elizabeth II “firmly” turned the idea down. Speaking to The Times, he said, “There are empty bedrooms and suites in the private apartments which the Sussexes may have had their eye on, or perhaps some former living quarters in the castle grounds converted into other things. But I can see how it might not be entirely appropriate to have a young family living there.”
Instead of handing over a place inside Windsor Castle, the Queen gave the Sussexes Frogmore Cottage. It wasn’t exactly the castle itself, but it still gave the couple a royal home where they could start their new life together.
Frogmore Cottage Was Actually A Huge Gift
Harry and Meghan moved into Frogmore Cottage in 2019, just weeks before welcoming their son, Prince Archie. They stayed there until 2020 before stepping down as senior working royals and moving away from the U.K.
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Royal expert Katie Nicholl later revealed why the gift meant much more than people realized. In her book The New Royals, she wrote that “the cottage was a big deal” because the Queen’s “entrance into the gardens is right next to their cottage.”
Nicholl also explained, “It is essentially her backyard, her solitude, and her privacy. She was giving that up in gifting Harry and Meghan Frogmore Cottage. We all thought it was very big of her. She said, ‘I hope they’ll respect it.’“
Harry clearly loved the place too. In his 2023 memoir Spare, he wrote, “We loved that place. From the first minute. It felt as if we were destined to live there.”
Living inside Windsor Castle never happened for Harry and Meghan. Even so, Frogmore Cottage became the place where they started married life before everything changed just a year later.
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