Harry and Meghan paid back the renovation costs for Frogmore Cottage, but the royals might have missed an important warning over the scandal(Image: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock)
The Royal Family’s household and financial arrangements have long been a lightning rod for controversy, but the heat on the House of Windsor is rapidly intensifying. A previous uproar surrounding Harry and Meghan may well have been the canary in the coal mine for financial transparency – and it remains to be seen whether the Firm fully realised the scale of the reckoning heading down the pipeline.
Sources close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have broken their silence as the House of Windsor faces an audit this summer examning its property empires and arrangements to lease vast properties to members of the family below commercial rates.
A source close to the Duke and Duchess admits to the Mirror that “in some respects, it is undoubtedly more challenging,” for the couple since they became financially independent and walked away from the institution.
They added: “[The couple] no longer have a Sovereign Grant to support them, nor access to multiple homes maintained at public expense, whether through rent-free arrangements or nominal rents.
William and his family moved into Forest Lodge last year(Image: Getty Images)
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“But what they do have is an independent and entirely self-funded life – one that nobody else has to pay for and nobody else needs to worry about funding…unlike the Royal Family. Is it right that they, that working members of the Royal Family should have their finances scrutinised, absolutely. They should be treated the same as any other public institution or body,” the insider continues.
When Harry and Meghan stepped back as working royals in 2020, their departure trigged intense public outcry over the taxpayer money used to renovate their UK home, Frogmore Cottage. Amid the furore, the couple paid back the reported £2.4 million spent on the propery and paid market rent on the property. By 2023, a Palace spokesperson confirmed the couple had “fulfilled their financial obligations in relation to the property.”
Now sources close to the couple claim they had alrady budgeted in repaying the refurbishment costs before anyone asked them to.
“Harry and Meghan always believed that repaying the money for Frogmore was the right thing to do. Many people have suggested they had to be pressured into it, but the reality is that they had already factored repayment into their plans when they decided to step away from the institution,” they told the Mirror.
This week it has been reported that Frogmore Cottage may soon be subdivided again, returning to the format that it was in before Harry and Meghan converted it into one family home.
Since their departure, the cottage has largely sat empty, with a disgraced former Prince Andrew reportedly refusing to downsize into it. Instead the spotlight shifted to Andrew’s living arrangements. Revelations that he paid only a “peppercorn” rent to live in the lavish Royal Lodge mansion, before he had to move out, drew fierce scrutiny, compounded by the news that his brother, Prince Edward, enjoys a similarly heavily subsidised deal on his own 120-room mansion, Bagshot Park.
Andrew, pictured in 2015, paid ‘a peppercorn rent’ on his huge mansion(Image: PA)
With the Public Accounts Committee launching a formal audit into the Crown Estate’s deals with the Royal Family this summer – royal expert Duncan Larcombe – former royal editor at the Sun and author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story – tells the Mirror that only two senior royals are successfully reading the “public mood”: Kate and William.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have taken a radically different approach with their “forever home,” Forest Lodge, which they moved into last autumn. The couple independently funded all modifications themselves and are paying a full market rent, with The Times reporting leaked documents that price the lease at a staggering £307,500 a year.
“It’s no surprise that William and Kate are paying a rent of over £300,000 a year for their property,” Larcombe explains. He points out: “They’re in tune with the public mood and they’ve let it be known that they’re above criticism, which is very sensible.”
Reflecting on the initial outcry that the Sussexes’ faced, Larcombe notes the reaction was a turning point for royal accountability: “It was one of the first major times Harry and Meghan had been criticised.” “That resentment set a precedent for the rest of the royal addresses. It has since been compounded by Prince Andrew and the peppercorn rent disclosures, which have turned into a genuine, ongoing scandal.”
William and his family moved into Forest Lodge(Image: Getty Images)
Since the peppercorn rents came under scrutiny, more questions have also been raised about the finances of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with a renewed focus on the homes they reside in, and their business deals.
The expert admits that public opinion remains deeply divided over should fit the bill for the royal properties, telling the Mirror: “Arch-royalists will say, ‘No, they deserve it for the sacrifices and the duty that they engage in.’
“People that aren’t so fond of the Royal Family are going to say: ‘Well, they should pay rent like anyone else.’ That’s the dividing line. I’m not sure where I sit on it. I think if we are going to expect them to do public service for their whole lives, then the least the public can do is allow them to avoid huge bills for the homes they live in.”
