While they now live in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, California, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle once resided in a ‘secret’ Cotswolds dwelling in the UK
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are no strangers at trying to find the perfect property.
While Meghan and Harry currently live in a sprawling £12million mansion in Southern California’s celebrity enclave of Montecito, it turns out the pair once also had a ‘secret’ UK bolthole in a celebrity-loved location in the UK. The couple started living together at Harry’s Nottingham Cottage Bachelor pad, before their planned move into Frogmore Cottage following their wedding in 2018.
Frogmore was a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II. An historic, Grade II listed home on the Frogmore estate in Windsor, the couple decided to renovate before moving in, signing a lease on a ‘secret’ dwelling in the Cotswolds while they waited. Another Grade II listed property, the idea was to live there while the Frogmore renovations took place. Worth an estimated £2.5million in 2018, their residency was sadly short-lived.
The press soon discovered their 18th-century, four-bedroom property location in the 4,000-acre Great Tew Estate, also home to David and Victoria Beckham’s country house and celebrity hotspot, Soho Farmhouse. Made from Cotswold stone, the home had four acres of private land, alongside a two-bedroom cottage for staff. A friend of the couple had previously said that the Sussexes: “Loved walking their dogs and entertaining their friends in complete solitude,” at the Oxfordshire home. The pair were also reported to have entertained celebrities, including George and Amal Clooney, while residing there. In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry said they were disappointed to leave: “We loved it out there,” he wrote.
“The air fresh, the verdant grounds – plus, no paps. Best of all, we’d be able to call upon the talents of my father’s longtime butler, Kevin,” he said. He continued: “He knew the Oxfordshire house, and he’d know how to turn it quickly into a home,” admitting that their time there was: “A much-needed change of scenery, a much-needed ally in our corner.” The couple moved into Frogmore Cottage shortly before their eldest child Archie was born in May 2019. Harry and Meghan paid back £2.4million of taxpayers’ money used to renovate Frogmore Cottage in 2020 after they stepped back as senior royals and relocated to America.
