Meghan Markle responds to rumours about her and Prince Harry's £2.4m Frogmore Cottage renovation

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published 4 September 2022

Meghan Markle has set the record straight about her and Prince Harry's UK home renovations.

In her recent interview with The Cut, Meghan Markle commented on the rumours about the expensive renovations undertaken at her and Prince Harry's UK home, Frogmore Cottage
Meghan also spoke candidly about packing up the home earlier this year and let slip where she buys some of her home decor
In other royal news, Prince William and Kate Middleton have dropped a hint that they will not have anymore children

Meghan Markle's recent interview with New York Magazine's The Cut was jam-packed with titbits of information about her family life, with the Duchess commenting on a vast variety of topics.

One such discussion centred around the home renovations she and Prince Harry undertook before moving into Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate. The royal couple moved into the property in April of 2019 ahead of the birth of their first child, Archie, and spent time make the house a home for their growing brood.

Speculation about the £2.4 million project was rampant at the time. Rumours about golden bathtubs and other 'unnecessary' luxuries being added to the home at the cost of the British tax payer, flew and, at the time, were never clarified.

In her interview with The Cut, Meghan finally put these rumours to bed. Journalist Allison P. Davis, wrote, "Headline after headline suggested that the renovations were more extravagant than they actually were. There was never, for instance, a yoga studio with a floating floor, never a gold bathtub or a copper bathtub; there wasn’t a special wing for her mother."

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"They [Meghan and Harry] had been criticised for using an exorbitant amount of taxpayer funds, £2.4 million ($3.2 million), for the upgrades on a home they’d been given," the piece explained before revealing, "They've since repaid the renovation costs."

After clarifying what Frogmore Cottage definitely does not look like, Meghan went on to reveal a bit about what the interiors do look like.

She explained that the family had packed up the belongings of theirs that still remained at the Windsor property earlier this year. She explained that she was reunited with her "good old Ikea frames" among other things like journals and socks.

While imagining the royals toddling around Ikea may be difficult, royalty before Meghan have admitted to owning, and loving, bargain Ikea pieces. Previously, Kate Middleton has admitted that she too is a fan of the flat-pack Swedish home brand. During a trip to Sweden, Kate revealed that her and Prince William's children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, have Ikea furniture in their bedrooms.

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Harry and Meghan currently live in Montecito, a small, wealthy seaside community in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles. The couple live with their children Archie, aged three, and Lilibet, who is one. Despite their move, the couple have retained the lease on Frogmore Cottage so they can stay in the property during any trips back across the pond.

Since Prince Harry and Meghan moved out, the couple have allowed Harry's cousin Princess Eugenie to live at the property with her husband Jack Brooksbank and their son August. The family of three split their time between the cottage and a home in Portugal where Jack Brooksbank resides for work.

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Charlie Elizabeth Culverhouse is royal news and entertainment writer for Goodto.com. She began her freelance journalism career after graduating from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Magazine Journalism, receiving an NCTJ diploma, and earning a First Class BA (Hons) in Journalism at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. She has also worked with BBC Good Food and The Independent.