Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Just Paid Back That Frogmore Cottage Money
Everyone can relax now.
After using U.K. taxpayer money to renovate Windsor Castle’s Frogmore Cottage, the home in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex lived for most of 2019, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have officially paid back the money. A total of £2.4 million (around $3.1 million) has been given back to the Sovereign Grant, a taxpayer-funded sum paid to the Royal Family.
“A contribution has been made to the Sovereign Grant by the Duke of Sussex,” a September 7th statement from Meghan and Harry reads, according to Vanity Fair. “This contribution as originally offered by Prince Harry has fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage, a property of Her Majesty The Queen, and will remain the UK residence of the duke and his family.”
There was backlash over Meghan and Harry’s use to renovate Frogmore using funds from the Sovereign Grant.
That backlash was only heightened when the couple announced they would step down from their positions as senior royals at the beginning of 2020. Before this announcement, Meghan and Harry had barely spent any time at Frogmore, thus leading taxpayers to criticize them for dining and dashing on the royal “cottage.”
The cost of the Frogmore renovations included converting the five-apartment building into one single home, according to The Guardian, which noted at the time that Frogmore hadn’t undergone renovations in “some years” and was already “earmarked for renovation” before Meghan and Harry moved in.
However, the Sussexes always intended to pay back the funds used during the renovation over a period of time, though Queen Elizabeth II did not require it. But, since signing a deal with Netflix that sources estimate to be around the $100 million mark, Meghan and Harry made the decision to pay off the Frogmore renovation costs with one lump sum.
Meghan and Harry are now living full time in the Los Angeles area, where they plan to raise their son Archie for the time being. And with this Netflix deal on the back burner, we can’t wait to see what the Sussexes debut first.
