Meghan and Harry Debacle part 2

[RosesandIris]

New thread

Has anyone seen that Lady Colin Campbell has written a book on Harry and Meghan using insider information. Apparently she’s has members of the Markle family to stay. She’s brave!

H and M wanted to live in Windsor Castle but HM said no.

The Queen didn't buy Anmer Hall, she owned it.

Aah! I'd forgotten the Queen owned Amner Hall.

Right, so they said no to a massive Kensington Palace apartment, a Cotswolds country house and a Wales country house, and asked for Windsor Castle instead. I'm beginning to see why they ended up in Frogmore Cottage.

They're basically those people on Location, Location, Location who want a period cottage but with big rooms and high ceilings, that's private and secluded but also within five minutes' drive from a motorway with easy access to Central London. At a bargain price, of course.

The Queen asked the tenant to vacate it early to accommodate W and K who used the house as their main residence whilst William worked as a pilot for EAAA and she paid for a £1.5m refurb.

Very similar to what H&M got, a property refurbed to use as their main residence. The main difference being that Frogmore was refurbed using public money not the Queen's own.

W and K did get stick as they were also having The KP apartment done up using public money. But I guess that was a long term investment in the future monarch and family who need a London base particularly as W becomes the heir.

Wiki says Anmer was 'allocated' to the Cs so perhaps it is actually still the Queen's property.

I only saw a bit of the cottage, looked like a big fuck off farmhouse rather then grand stately home... from what I saw.
A bit like some of the nicer 4 in a bed B and Bs.

I’m hoping that description helps.
I was very lost at the time, I’d been misdirected to avoid some filming going on (maleficent), had the kids in the car and was late. So it was a bit of a “fuck I’m going to get shot for being here” moment.

Not seen wills and Kate’s but my googling makes anmer looks more impressive with the out buildings etc.

I would say that Windsor is really really really expensive though, so a cost comparison could be an interesting one.

I'm glad you mentioned Kensington Palace, Buttery. Everyone always talks about Froggy Cottage, but the fact that they turned down the palace apartment too tends to get left out

Yet another refurbishment wasted ... I'd say they'll probably use it for another royal, except they'll probably want it tricked out to their taste too

@WindsorBlues I thought you were actually asking!

Buttery - Windsor Castle has 1000 rooms with numerous apartments and suites. It's made to sound as though if they lived there they would have had the whole castle to themselves, but that isn't true. Harry and Meghan were married there and Archie was christened there so it does hold happy memories for them, but it is also a favourite place amongst other royals. They asked the Queen if they would be able to live in one of the apartments but the Queen said no as it is not a suitable place for young children and it is also one of her royal residences. She then offered them Frogmore Cottage which is one of her favourite places.

Just to add I think the Queen was right to say they couldn't live at Windsor.

My very quick rightmove look (very very bored today!)
The closest I can see is somewhere around 2.5 million for frogmore

Anmer slightly more tricky as there’s obviously less comparable in the area.
But there is a big 7 bed house with pool, grounds etc for 2 million.

I'm not sure if it's absolutely true they turned down the Kensington apartment. In my opinion the offer was withdrawn. I googled this and the apartment wasn't going to be ready till winter 2020. But Frogmore cottage is pretty unimpressive. It looks like a farm building. Not even a nice farmhouse. I googled Camilla's house Ray Mill just out of interest. And that looks very nice though not large from the photo I saw. So it's not just size.

They just seem to flit from place to place, idea to idea expecting everyone else to pick up the tab.

Viviennemary - It was reported that the Kensington Palace apartment was only 2 bedrooms so not big enough for a growing family. Also the renovations would have come in at more than Frogmore Cottage as there was asbestos that needed removing. There are before and after pictures of Frogmore Cottage and it does look like a farm building but afterwards I thought it looked quite pretty.

@Mamamia456 your version of Windsor sounds much more plausible. Thank you for clarifying as I thought the asking 'for Windsor castle' was a bit much!

Wiki says Anmer was 'allocated' to the Cs so perhaps it is actually still the Queen's property.

As I underhand it, Anmer is part of the Sandringham Estate and William will inherit it in it’s entirety in due course.

I think the set up was this. Originally Harry and Meghan lived at Kensington palace or its grounds in Nottingham Cottage the two bedroomed apartment and also rented a house in the Cotswolds. Obviously the two bedrooned wasn't going to work when Archie came along. They were meant to be having apartment 1 which is huge and next door to 1A which is also huge and William and Kates London base. The Gloucesters were moving out. Well whatever the reason H& M didn't move in and went to Frogmore but apparently they were hardly ever there. It's all a bit of a mystery IMHO.

So they got very similar - a country home refurbished to their taste (on someone else’s tab) belonging to one of the major Royal estates, plus (if they wanted it) an apartment (the size of an enormous house) in KP. Which should see them through the rest of the reign of Elizabeth and all the reign of Charles

@ButteryPuffin one of the more memorable episodes of Location, Location was an English guy and his American wife who wanted a property in the Windsor area. Unfortunately she was a stereotypical fussy American. She hated absolutely everything she was shown, saying something like British homes made her sad. Phil said in despair 'I've never had anyone reject an entire country before.' Mind you they did try to flog her a new (ie tiny) development in Bracknell.

Agree about Froggy Cottage looking a bit ... err ... dull. No doubt it's the last word in luxury inside, but the exterior looks to me like a bunch of local authority houses tacked together

Nothing wrong with local authority houses, but perhaps a bit of a surprise if Meghan googled "Frogmore" and thought they were getting the main house

I can imagine being in Frogmore Cottage and looking out at Frogmore House with its spacious private grounds and is pretty much unused, and thinking...WTF am I doing here?

Let's hope that's not one of the 'treated unfairly' 'raw deals' mentioned in the biography?

Birds eye view of Frogmore cottage. It is bigger than I thought. I presume the third photo is the entrance and couldn’t see a more recent one of this aspect.

I presume H&M would have lived there a few years, spent a fair bit of time in the cotswolds and then perhaps moved to a larger location when something became available. As has been already mentioned, Harry is HM’s grandson and 6th in line. Not the heir presumptive.

Birds eye view of Frogmore cottage. It is bigger than I thought

Good grief you're not kidding!! I guess I thought that usual pic of the left hand wing was most of what there was, while it's anything but

If they were offered an apartment of similar size to W&C then they were being treated equally to William who is actually going to be king.

Anmer Hall was allocated to W&C so they could have complete privacy when the kids were outside, similar to Charles having Highgrove/Birkhall. I'm guessing the grounds at Kensington are never really that private.

We're Eugenia and Beatrice ever given apartments/cottages?

At the time of their marriage Harry was 6th in line. Beatrice and Eugenie has been 5/6th in line before the Cambridge kids were born.

I suspect they weren't offered anything on that scale. So actually H&M we're doing quite well out of it.