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Prince Harry admitted he was “embarrassed” to show Meghan Markle his home at Nottingham Cottage, revealing that his future wife compared it to a “frat house”.
In his Spare memoir bombshell, which went on sale yesterday, the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex insisted that his London home, where he lived for six years, was “not a palace”.
Although the royal said she hoped to show Meghan around her home soon after they started dating in 2016, she was concerned that the two-bedroom cottage would not meet expectations.
The father of two wrote: “I was excited to welcome Meg into my home, but also embarrassed. Nott Cott was not a palace. Nott Cott was next to the palace, that was the best that could be said.
In his biography Spare, Harry describes how Nottingham Cottage was worlds away from William and Kate’s luxurious Kensington Palace apartment. He is pictured relaxing on the cream sofas in the living room, presumably the ones Meghan bought to replace the brown sofas.
Watching Meghan walk down the garden path towards her house, Prince Harry says he was “relieved” that she “showed no sign of disappointment”.
However, that changed when the Duchess entered the cottage, where the ceilings are “low dollhouses.”
He added: “Then she said something about a frat house.”
Prince Harry says he’s never before noticed how ‘tired’ the furniture in his home is, and the then-Suits actress seemed particularly unimpressed with her beanbag chair that matched her brown sofa.
The two-bedroom Nott Cott, which was the first marital home of Harry and Meghan and the Prince and Princess of Wales, was described as “so small” by Meghan in her recent Netflix series.
Left: Meghan Markle poses in a doorway at Nottingham Cottage. Right: The modest kitchen in the first home the couple shared
Left: Prince Harry pictured eating a sandwich in the garden at Nottingham Cottage. Right: The Duke poses for a photo in one of the estate’s low-ceilinged ‘dollhouse’ rooms
After Meghan moved out, Prince Harry recalls how the couple bought some lights from IKEA and ordered a second-hand sofa on sofa.com, which they had bought using his future wife’s credit card.
Later in the book, the Duke recalls being invited to tea with the Prince and Princess of Wales and again describes being “embarrassed” by how Nottingham Cottage compares to his “museum-like” space.
After their wedding in 2011, the Prince and Princess of Wales originally lived in the two-bedroom cottage before moving to the reportedly 20-bedroom Apartment 1A in the main building.
Harry and Meghan later exchanged their previous home, Nott Cott, where Harry had been living since 2013, for the ten-bedroom Frogmore Cottage on the Queen’s Windsor Estate.
Elsewhere in his book, Prince Harry says he felt ‘ashamed’ of Nottingham Cottage compared to Kate and William’s ‘museum-like’ apartment at Kensington Palace. [pictured during President Obama’s state visit in April 2016]
Harry and Meghan later exchanged their first home, Nott Cott, for the ten-bedroom Frogmore Cottage on the Queen’s Windsor Estate.
The couple moved into the house in April 2019, which received a £2.4m renovation in the same year, just months before they announced they were stepping down as royals and moving to Montecito, California.
They have since paid the renovation costs to the government and continue to use the Grade II listed property as their UK base.
During their six-part Netflix docuseries, which landed on the streaming platform last month, the couple revealed how Oprah was stunned by the “small” size of their home when she “went to tea” and told them that “no one I would”. believe they were living there.
During one episode, Meghan points out that the living space was far from vast, saying: “Kensington Palace sounds very majestic, of course it does, it says ‘palace’ in the name. But Nottingham Cottage was so small.
Describing the house, Meghan said: “People thought we lived in a palace and we did. Well, a country house in a palace.
Harry said: ‘Everything is on a slight incline, [with] very low ceilings. So I don’t know who was there before, but they must have been very short.
Megan added: ‘[Harry] he just banged his head constantly on that spot because it’s so tall.’
‘The whole thing is on a slight incline, [with] really low ceilings,’ explains Harry. “So I don’t know who was there before, but they must have been very short.”
According to Meghan, the couple’s life within the Kensington Palace grounds is unlike anything “anyone would believe”, and the couple shared images of themselves doing DIY and gardening projects.
“Me with a hoe and H varnish,” says Meghan. “It was just a chapter in our lives where I don’t think anyone could believe what it was really like behind the scenes.”
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