British journalist Peter Hunt said that instead of building bridges, King Charles burnt them down. He was commenting on Prince Harry and Meghan’s statement that they were being kicked out of their home on the British Royal Family’s Windsor Estate.
“Much of the British media will portray this expulsion as a righteous act by a strong king. It is anything but that,” the former BBC royal reporter said.
He added: “Instead of building bridges, the Head of State is setting them on fire. His son’s banishment is cruel, unnecessary and diminishes Charles.”
The use of Frogmore Cottage was a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, and they renovated it at a reported cost of £2.4 million ($2.9 million).
It has now been gifted to Prince Andrew, the disgraced brother of King Charles III, according to reports in The Sun and Daily Telegraph.
“We can confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been asked to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage,” a US-based spokesperson for the couple said, without providing further details.
Harry and Meghan were reportedly asked to vacate the property in January, just days after Prince ‘Spare’s revealing memoir was published.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Harry’s father Charles, who has long favored a lean monarchy, has been undertaking an overhaul of family finances since his mother’s death in September.
A possible removal of Andrew’s annual grant of £250,000 a year could see him evicted from his current residence, the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge, also on the Windsor estate, due to its huge maintenance costs.
Harry and Meghan’s unofficial biographer Omid Scobie, citing a source, wrote on Yahoo News that the couple had “until early summer to move on”.
‘Initially they only had a few weeks but now they have at least until after the coronation’ in May, Scobie wrote, adding that the couple have yet to hear if they will be invited to Charles’ coronation .
Scobie also quoted a friend of the couple saying, “this all seems very final and like a cruel punishment.”
“It’s as if (the royal family) wanted to eliminate them from the picture for good.”
Harry and Meghan moved to California in 2020 after stepping back from royal life altogether.
They have since been involved in a series of projects – from an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a Netflix documentary – airing grievances about their experiences as senior royals.
‘Spare’ broke sales records when it was released in January, but also saw Harry’s popularity plummet on both sides of the Atlantic.
Andrew, meanwhile, was forced out of public life due to his friendship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Last year, Andrew settled a US civil sexual assault case with accuser Virginia Giuffre.
