Meghan Markle, Prince Harry hit out at ‘small’ royal home where they lived for two years
Among the bombshells in Harry and Meghan’s Netflix doco was that their royal digs was not a palace – rather, a tiny cottage with “low ceilings”.
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“No one would believe it.”
That’s what Oprah Winfrey told Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after visiting them at their Kensington Palace quarters in London.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex occupied Nottingham Cottage on palace grounds between 2017 and 2019, and revealed in the fourth episode of their Netflix documentary that despite sounding fancy in the title – the residence was not quite fit for a royal.
“As far as people were concerned we were living in a palace. And we were … In a cottage on palace grounds,” Harry, 38, said.
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Meghan, 41, offered: “Kensington Palace sounds very regal, of course it does, it says ‘palace’ in the name. But Nottingham Cottage was so small. [Harry] would just hit his head constantly in that place because he’s so tall.”
Harry added, “The whole thing is on a slight lean, [with] really low ceilings. I don’t know who was there before but they must have been very short.”
The couple, who dropped several bombshells in the final instalment of their docuseries released Thursday night, also shared a flurry of photos from inside the humble cottage.
They said broadcast queen Winfrey was in disbelief when she visited them for tea one day.
“When she came in, she sat down, and she said, ‘No one would ever believe it,’” Harry said.
“‘No one would ever believe it!’,” Meghan added, impersonating Winfrey. “It was just a chapter in our lives where I don’t think anyone could believe what it was actually like behind the scenes.”
Just before Meghan gave birth to Archie in May 2019, the Queen offered the Sussexes the chance to live in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor - a much more spacious 10-bedroom residence - to which they happily accepted.
Among the most explosive allegations aired by the Sussexes final three episodes was that Prince William “screamed and shouted” at his little brother during the royal family’s crisis meeting negotiating their departure from royal life.
“I went in with the same proposal that we’d already made publicly, but once we got there, I was given five options: one being, all in, no change; five being, all out. I chose option three in the meeting, half in, half out. Have our own jobs, but also work in support of the Queen,” Harry said.
“But it became very clear very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion or debate,” Harry revealed.
“It was very terrifying to have my brother (Prince William) scream and shout at me, and my father (then-Prince Charles) say things that just simply weren’t true – and my grandmother, quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.
“But you have to understand that from the family’s perspective, especially hers, there are ways of doing things and her ultimate mission, goal, slash responsibility, is the institution.”
Originally published as Meghan Markle, Prince Harry hit out at ‘small’ royal home where they lived for two years
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