One of the wildest royal stories last week was a Sun exclusive, all about the unoccupied Frogmore Cottage. Frogmore Cottage is on the Royal Windsor estate, and it’s relatively close to Windsor Castle. FC was a dilapidated, forgotten property until it was “given” to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018, months after their wedding. They moved into FC in 2019, just before Archie was born. Even though they left the UK in 2020, they still had a valid lease, they had paid back the entire cost of the renovation, and they were still paying rent up until January 2023, which is when King Charles evicted them, and evicted Princess Eugenie and her family, who were subletting FC.
Last week, royal sources said that even though the Windsors have made pointed moves to NOT rent out FC since 2023, they were now going to undo the extensive renovation done by the Sussexes. One source told the Sun: “It’s been empty for three years. Even Andrew thought it wasn’t good enough for him to move in. Maybe if they get rid of any trace of Harry and Meghan, then someone within the royal household will fancy it. It would draw the line under Frogmore Cottage’s controversial history and return it to the pre-Meghan and Harry era.” That’s one of the most contemptible royal quotes I’ve seen in some time, but as I always say – the left-behinds are constantly making horse’s asses out of themselves all for an audience of one (Prince Harry) and they don’t even understand or acknowledge how insane and racist they look to everyone else. Well, two royal commentators had various thoughts on the big plan to undo the Frogmore reno.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The People’s Channel the decision to reverse the renovations is “practical”.
“It is, above all, a practical decision as the Crown Estate knows it is being scrutinised to provide value for money,” he said. “However, the optics are obvious. Harry and Meghan’s £2.4million alterations to Frogmore Cottage were paid for by the taxpayer. This was later reimbursed by the couple.”
“Their eviction reportedly infuriated Harry,” Mr Fitzwilliams said. “It coincided with the release of his ill-advised memoir Spare, which was another attack on the Royal Family. The new plans eliminate the memory of the Sussexes, which some would think appropriate.”
The best value for money would have been… allowing the Sussexes to continue paying for their lease on the home for which they “paid back” the cost of renovating. In 2023, even the Crown Estate people were concerned about the optics and pettiness of King Charles’ move to evict the Sussexes, simply because Harry & Meghan were still paying rent and paying for upkeep, all while Eugenie and her family subletted. No one has leased Frogmore Cottage since then because Charles and the Crown Estate have blocked it, because of the location of FC within the ring of security around the castle. Now, suddenly, it costs the Crown Estate millions of pounds to undo the Sussexes’ renovation, all because the childish and racist Windsors can’t stand that a Black woman lived on a royal property? Speaking of, Jennie Bond at least points out that the optics of all of this are pretty bonkers.
Jennie Bond told the Mirror: “If these reports are true, I don’t think it should be taken as some sort of vindictive move against Harry and Meghan. The Crown Estate is run as a commercial enterprise with the profits going to the Treasury. If the best commercial decision is to make further alterations to Frogmore Cottage, then so be it. However, it does, on the face of it, seem absurd that a recently renovated house cannot be rented out as is.”
She continued: “Obviously there are security considerations in renting out a property so close to Windsor Castle, but arrangements like this are not impossible. And I think the optics of more money being spent on the cottage are quite damaging.”
Of course it does “seem absurd that a recently renovated house cannot be rented out as is” – because it’s genuinely absurd, it’s genuinely ludicrous that these horrible people are doing THIS much just to get Harry and Meghan’s attention. That the Windsors are willing to blow through millions of pounds just to reverse a renovation on a home the Sussexes were evicted from three years ago! Incidentally, remember earlier this year, just before Prince Andrew was shuffled off to Norfolk? There were reports of a construction crew working on Frogmore Cottage back then too. I don’t know what that means, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone rage-smashed walls in Frogmore and that’s one of the reasons why it couldn’t be rented out to anyone.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Netflix.
-
- Windsor, UNITED KINGDOM – The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have handed over the keys to their UK home Frogmore Cottage to Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank. Frogmore Cottage is a historic Grade II listed home on the Frogmore Estate, part of Home Park, Windsor, England. It was built in 1801 at the direction of Queen Charlotte in the gardens near Frogmore House. A part of the Crown Estate, it is the private residence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Pictured: Frogmore Cottage BACKGRID USA 21 NOVEMBER 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
It’s possible that the reason the house remained empty for so long is that Charles was still hoping that Harry would divorce Meghan and return to the UK and thus Frogmore would be returned him after he left Meghan. It’s hard to believe that there’s no senior staff member or family friend who the Royal Family could rent Frogmore to.
That’s really insensitive (so yeah, something Charles would think of). Can you imagine coming back from a divorce to live in the house you built together. I’d rather live in Nott Cot .
They have too many estates and not enough people that actually represent the crown that could live there. In QEII’s day, this would probably be given to a cousin who would then be expected to show up at every tea party, horse show, and hospital ribbon cutting all around the country for the next hundred years (like the Gloucesters).
But Charles and William have made it clear that the cousins won’t be considered “senior royals”, even the princes and princesses. But funnily enough they don’t want to reduce the sovereign grant or the amount of places/estates they have to reflect their now-dwindling numbers. The Wales can’t occupy all of the palaces, try as they might.
I think there’s actually a pretty small pool of candidates who would both want to live in this house that is so notable and within the enhanced BRF security protocols, yet have the money to pay the rent. There are certainly rich people that might like to curry favour with the royals and live at a prestigious address, but many of them are politically problematic (especially if Andrew goes to trial for leaking government secrets). I’m sure there are still lots of royal relatives that could live there, but they might not be able to pay the rent. Hmmm… maybe Lauren Sanchez-Besos will go through an Anglophile phase?
I agree, had the same thoughts myself. The suitable people within the family don’t have the money and the CE has an obligation to rent at commercial rates but are restricted on who they can rent it to. Having said that spending more millions seems crazy, especially as a few years ago in their annual report they were boasting about how the previous renovation had increased its value.
It’s possible no one wanted to live there because it would smack of taking Meghan & Harry’s leftovers. Which is exactly what it is. Oddly this makes them uncomfortable even though they gleefully relished throwing them out. Perhaps the phantom twinge of a bad conscience?
And that in itself is so stupid, because Frogmore Cottage was renovated to a far higher and more modern standard than the average pokey royal dwelling. I bet it also had more bathrooms than the other royal houses 😀
I should think that anyone with any decency would decline to rent it.
This is pure racist pettiness they are literally going after every single thing that is associated with the Sussex’s.. from their business, charities and now the actual homes they lived in. They couldn’t erase them so they want to erase everything that they have built.. I also believe this is pure Peggy, who I’m sure has put his fists through the plaster at FC more than once since the Sussex’s vacated. I never thought one of PD sons would turn out so horrible.
Pre Harry and Meghan days Frogmore was dilapidated servants quarters.
Do they actually listen to themselves?
Right?! How are they to take it back to that?
🎯
It takes some gall to state that the “Crown Estate is run as a commercial enterprise” when the house has been allowed to sit there for three years collecting dust and not rents. This was after kicking subletting Eugenie and her family out. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, financially.
And if there is a business case for remodeling to make Frogmore into smaller units again, let’s hear it: the crown should have to justify these costs to the taxpayers and show their work.
Exactly, Harry paid the highest rent in the entire Royal Famili I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like 200,000 pounds a year, plus fixed maintenance costs: gardener, cleaning, and care. So, by evicting Harry from his home, the Crown Estate incurred approximately a million pounds in losses over those three years, which is how much didn’t go into the budget, if they actually transfer the money. In a normal country, an institution like the British Royal Family, funded by taxpayers, would be held accountable for these costs, and Charles should use his private funds to cover the losses incurred by the budget due to mismanagement of the state resources they use. He kicked out the member of the royal family who paid the highest rent, depriving the budget of income, explaining that “the Palace can’t afford to maintain a building where no one lives,” which was nonsense to the commoners, because Harry paid for everything, and Eugenie also sublet the house.
It NEVER stood empty. Now it’s sitting there, not earning any money, and falling into disrepair.
I’m more than certain that William is responsible for evicting Harry and his family from the house, which he renovated at his own expense, also bearing the cost of £2.5 million for the part of the renovation that doesn’t belong to the tenant but to the owner, like replacing the roof, plumbing, etc. H&M spent almost twice that amount on the interior design, meaning furniture, appliances, painting, etc.
Frogmore Cottage is about 500 square meters plus a garden. I don’t know how big it is, but it’s definitely not 150 ares :)))
Despite this, they paid the highest rent of all royal families, and if you convert it to square meters, they paid a huge amount compared to, for example,, Edward with 120 rooms, who initially paid £5,000 A YEAR (!), then, in 1998, Edward signed a new contract for Bagshot Park for 50 years with a rent of £90,000 a year, and nine years later, in 2007, the contract was changed to 150 years for which he paid a one-off £5 million, which, divided into months, gives £33,333 a month without increases, as a fixed amount.
I have no idea how large Bagshot Park is, as it’s a secret, no information has been released. The land covers 50 ar, the building has 120 rooms, I assume it could cover close to 10,000 square meters. Windsor Castle has 1,000 rooms and about 70,000 square meters of space (55,000 square meters of usable space).
William, who occupies six houses, doubts he pays for any of them. It’s already officially known that he pays nothing for Apartment A1 in Kensington Palace, a 20-room, 1,400-square-meter apartment, although he previously tried to claim he pays rent. As usual, William thinks that saying so is enough; he doesn’t have to. It’s worth adding a very important thing: besides Harry, none of the above have any money of their own, so even if they “pay” rent or renovations, they still get money from the queen/king, who gets money from the budget :)))
ONLY HARRY paid the rent he earned, meaning it was pure profit, which was ignored…
A very commercial approach….🤣
SORRY, CORRECTION…!!!!
Edwards’ last lease agreement, from 2007, was for a 150-year lease, for which he paid 5 million in one lump sum. That’s NOT 33,333 per month, but ANNUALLY.
The monthly fee would be 2,777 pounds for 120 rooms and approximately 8,000 square meters.🤣
The thought of disgustinly vile “royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams” telling anyone anything is annoying.
Everyone knows he lied about having watched the Oprah interview. That’s why I don’t get why he’s still being treated as if his opinion is worth anything.
I’m confused. So they’re making it into separate apartments again? So they’ll need to find more renters then yeah? Wouldn’t that be a headache to have to find MoRE renters that could pass the security checks for being within the Windsor security circle? Like fr what are they doing? The petty eviction lost them so much money. Harry and Meghan could’ve been paying the CE market rent for years and years now. Instead they’ve lost money. And now they’re spending more money to renovate a recently just renovated home??? I’m sorry but these people are horrible and disgusting, truly.
Well, before it had been staff housing (which was why the separate apartments), but apparently it had been unoccupied by staff for long enough to become semi-dilapidated so presumably there isn’t a pressing need for more staff housing…so who the eff knows what these nimrods are doing.
Renovate Frogmore cottage???? When Royal lodge needs fumigation and blessed oil….priorities
The grey-suìted ghouls in the criminal enterprise known as the BRF are counting on the hoi polloi to forget that in their 2024 financial report and subsequent quoted comments made by one of their finance people, they salivated as they acknowledged that H&M had reimbursed the Crown for the £2.4M renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage WHICH HAD BEEN THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MONARCH, and then stated with great satisfaction that the monarchy had thereby come into a property “of great value” and of no cost to them.
What the rest of us don’t know but have placed in the public domain many times are questions about whether H&M had been reimbursed for the $3M they had spent of their own money on the interior build-out, PLUS reimbursement of the amount of their FULL MARKET RATE (not peppercorn rental) annual lease that they had paid in advance.
“Has H&M been reimbursed for the $3M they had spent of their own money on the interior build-out, PLUS reimbursement of the amount of their FULL MARKET RATE (not peppercorn rental) annual lease that they had paid in advance?” YES!!! WE NEED TO HAVE A PUBLIC ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION FROM THE ROYAL FAMILY!
Racist a**holes, the lot of them.
In my opinion, the Other Brother has spent a significant amount of time rage destroying the inside of Frogmore Cottage. This would explain why a newly renovated house now needs a total renovation. His rage is looking pretty scary from the outside. I can only imagine what it’s like dealing with it close up. Scary!!
@Judy I agree. Raging Bull’s temper tantrums have caused so much destruction to its interior that FC has been rendered uninhabitable – yet we’re still inundated with his almost daily tabloid temper tantrums about the Sussexes! I’d also bet that any time repairs were made to FC, they were also undone by Raging Bully. Hence the need to undo any traces of the Sussexes – to prevent further Raging Bully attacks to and in that property.
Didn’t then Prince Charles once rip out a sink in his rage? Like father, like son? Anyways, the Sussexes are in their Montecito Mansion, with their 9 bedrooms and twenty million bathrooms, looking as loved up as ever (no pun intended!), and raising their beautiful children, all while working and earning their own millions.
This makes the most sense.
It’s interesting that apart from a few pictures, mostly the kitchen, we have no idea of the extensive renovations the Sussexes made to Frogmore or even what it looked like before. What need is this fulfilling exactly, this planned removal of all traces Sussex?
This isn’t about making the building more inhabitable for renters by splitting it in two or back into smaller pieces, most wording is around “removing traces of Harry and Meghan” as if the building was tainted by their presence and design. They can’t lie and say there’s a yoga room that needs changing- like they accused Meghan of adding. Each time it’s worded to remove their traces to make the home more appealing. As if the former presence of Harry amd Meghan left a stain. It likens it to a bordello or a former asylum , something heinous that needs changing because np one would live there.
As if they tainted it with their presence amd that’s why it hasn’t been rented, not any other reason.
And the excuse gets more stupid; it wasn’t good enough for Andrew so let’s… cut it into smaller units
🎯
Every article is racist amd xenophobic and designed to support the vile amd dangerous hatred against H and M