Meghan Markle and Prince Harry expected to get country home from the Queen after wedding
IF the Queen’s present for Prince William and Kate Middleton after their wedding is any indication, Harry and Meghan will be getting a very lavish gift.
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PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle will likely be given a sprawling country estate as a wedding gift from Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
The newlyweds will start married life at Nottingham Cottage, the two-bedroom house in the grounds of Kensington Palace in London where they have lived for the past year. They will probably move to a larger apartment within the main palace when they start a family.
But it is expected that the Queen will gift them a country home, as she did to Harry’s brother, Prince William, after his marriage to Catherine Middleton in 2011, when she gave them Anmer Hall, on her private Sandringham Estate at Norfolk.
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The 10-bedroom home underwent a renovation that cost almost $3 million before the couple moved in, when Prince William worked in the region as a rescue helicopter pilot. While they moved to Kensington Palace in August 2017 to begin life as full-time royals, they still escape to Anmer Hall as often as they can.
The media is speculating Harry and Meghan might be gifted York Cottage, a nearby house on the Sandringham Estate.
Royal finance expert David McClure said young royals were “traditionally given country estates.’’
“It’s their sanctuary, it keeps them sane. William and Kate would do that with Anmer, they’d just disappear,’’ he told News Corp.
“I have no inside knowledge but William got a place on the Sandringham estate at Anmer and my hunch is that if he (Harry) gets a place in the country, he and Meghan might want to be nearer London and as such somewhere in the Home Counties might be preferable.
“But it might well depend on what land is available either from the Queen’s private estate (Sandringham/Balmoral).’’
The Queen owns a large estate at Balmoral in Scotland, but spends more time at the 8000-hectare Sandringham at Norfolk in rural England, including when the family comes to spend Christmas each year.
There are 150 homes, offices and farm buildings on Sandringham, including York Cottage, which is currently used as an office.
The cottage, which is actually a substantial house, was the marital home of King George V and Queen Mary after they married in 1893, and King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father, was born there.
It had originally been speculated that the Queen might give York Cottage to Prince William and Catherine.
It is near Anmer Hall, meaning William and Harry, who are very close, would be able to easily spend time together with their families, without being in the media spotlight.
Another house earmarked as a possible country retreat for Harry ad Meghan is Harewood Park, a charming farmhouse which has been turned into country accommodation, located at Ross-On- Wye in Herefordshire and set on 360 hectares of land.
It is owned by Prince Charles’ private investment company, the Duchy of Cornwall, so could easily be gifted by Charles to his youngest son and new daughter-in- law.
It is situated on land which used to form part of a royal hunting estate after it was given by King John to the Knights Templar in 1215.
The Queen also gifted homes to three of her four children after their weddings.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were given the 12-bedroom Sunninghill Park, near Windsor, after their wedding in 1986.
After their divorce in the ‘90s, it was up for sale for five years before a controversial oligarch from Kazakhstan, Prince Andrew’s friend Timur Kulibayev, suddenly snapped it up for $27 million — $5 million over the asking price.
It came under the flight path at Heathrow when the airport altered its approaches to the airport, then fell into disrepair, and was later demolished.
The Queen’s daughter Princess Anne and her first husband Captain Mark Philips were gifted
Gatcombe Park in Gloustershire by the Queen in 1976.
She bought it from royal confidante Rab Butler, a former Home Secretary and Master of Trinity College.
Princess Anne still lives in the house with her second husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, while her first husband lives on an estate next door with his second wife.
Prince Edward, the Queen and Prince Philip’s youngest child, was also partially-gifted a house, Bagshot Park in Berkshire.
Part of a 15th century royal estate south of Windsor, it has been used as a royal residence by nobles including King Charles 1 and King William IV, although the original house was demolished in the 1800s and replaced.
The house was leased to Prince Edward in 2008, for a period of 50 years. It underwent a $5.5 million renovation funded partly by the Crown Estate, Ministry of Defence and Prince Edward himself, While Prince Edward first paid a peppercorn rent, he later agreed to pay about $160,000 a year in rent to stay there. His lease has since been extended to 150 years.
Prince Charles bought Highgrove House, his beloved nine-bedroom Georgian retreat in
Gloustershire, not far from Princess Anne’s home, in 1980.
While the Queen didn’t pay for it, Charles didn’t reach into his own pocket either, with the Duchy of Cornwall, which now delivers profits of around $40 million annually, funding the purchase.
The Duchy is always inherited by the Prince of Wales, meaning it will go to William when Charles becomes King, and later to little Prince George, William and Catherine’s oldest son.
Originally published as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry expected to get country home from the Queen after wedding
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