Meghan Markle didn’t know she “wasn’t going to live in a palace” when she met her now-husband Prince Harry, a royal commentator has claimed.
Royal Family author Tom Bower has said the Duchess of Sussex found living in the royal homes of Nottingham and Frogmore Cottages like a “jail sentence”.
He told Closer! magazine: “She didn’t realise when she hooked up with Harry that he didn’t have much money and wasn’t going to live in a palace.
“They didn’t have the pressure [to make a large income while in the UK] when they didn’t have a very large house overlooking the Pacific.
“Meghan never wanted to live in a small house in England. For her, Frogmore was like a jail sentence.”
Since ending their royal duties in March 2020, the couple have moved to California, where they own a home in Montecito, just outside of Santa Barbara.
Their home reportedly had nine bedrooms, with a spa, gym, wine cellar, five car garage and sits on 5.4 acres of land.
A far cry from the more modestly sized homes they occupied in the UK, their Montecito pad also has a private pool, tennis court, tea house, rose garden, children’s cottage, and a two-bed guest house.
Swapping British royalty for American celebrities, the couple reportedly live in the same neighbourhood as the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry.
When leaving the royal fold, the couple first moved to Canada before settling into their new home in July 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The couple spoke about their former home Kensington Palace-based home Nottingham Cottage in their tell-all Netflix series released in late 2022.
During one episode, Meghan said: “Kensington Palace sounds very regal, of course it does, it says ‘palace’ in the name. But Nottingham Cottage was so small.”
Describing the home, Meghan said: “People thought we lived in a palace and we did. Well, a cottage in a palace.”
Harry joined in, saying: “The whole thing is on a slight lean, [with] really low ceilings.
“So I don’t know who was there before but they must have been very short.”
Meghan added: “[Harry] would just hit his head constantly in that place because he’s so tall.”
Prior to moving across the pond, the couple also lived in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor which was subject to a £2.4 million renovation before they moved in.
