Harry and Meghan buy a holiday home in EUROPE after Charles asked them to give up their British base Frogmore Cottage: RICHARD EDEN EXCLUSIVE

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were evicted from their Windsor cottage by King Charles, they were left without a home in this country.

However, the California-based couple have made sure they keep a foothold on this side of the Atlantic.

The Daily Mail has learned that Prince Harry and Meghan have bought a house in Portugal.

They are not the only members of the royal family who own a Portuguese estate; Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, own a home in the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, a luxury 300-property seaside development in Melides, south of the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

Mr Brooksbank, 38, works in marketing and sales for CostaTerra. He, Eugenie, 34, and their two sons, August, three, and Ernest, 16 months, split their time between Portugal and London.

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank also own a Portuguese estate – located in the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club. The couple is pictured with their two children

By purchasing the house in Portugal, the Sussexes may have been able to acquire a so-called Golden Visa, which would give them visa-free access to the Schengen area of ​​the European Union.

This could have been a big draw for Meghan, who is a US citizen. When the couple got engaged in November 2017, Kensington Palace said Meghan would apply for British citizenship in due course, with a spokesperson confirming that “she will go through the process.” [which] lasts a number of years’.

She ultimately abandoned her bid to become a British citizen after she and her husband left the country in March 2020, less than two years after their wedding.

A spokesperson for the Sussexes confirmed in January last year that the king had asked them to give up their British home, Frogmore Cottage.

The five-bedroom property in the grounds of Windsor Castle was offered to Prince Andrew, the King’s brother, who turned down a move from the much larger Royal Lodge elsewhere in Windsor.

The king’s move followed the publication of Harry’s highly controversial memoir, Spare, in which he criticized members of the royal family, including his stepmother, Queen Camilla, and his brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Frogmore Cottage was gifted to the Sussexes by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, shortly after the couple were married at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Officially, however, the Crown Estate owns the property.

The CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club (pictured) is a luxury resort an hour south of Lisbon on Portugal’s picturesque Atlantic coast

Jose Santos, head of the Alentejo Tourism Board, confirmed that the Sussexes had enjoyed a ‘short stay’ at CostaTerra

Harry and Meghan carried out around £2 million worth of taxpayer-funded renovations, although they subsequently reimbursed the costs in full through a contribution to the Sovereign Grant.

After Harry and Meghan moved to North America and stepped down from their royal duties in 2020, Frogmore Cottage was rented to Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank until 2022.

The Sussexes are known to have close ties with Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank, who appeared in their 2022 Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan.

Last year it was reported that the Sussexes enjoyed a ‘three-night romantic break’ in Portugal after attending the Invictus Games in Germany.

The couple are said to have flown from Dusseldorf to Lisbon before traveling an hour south to Melides in a ‘mega-secret’ operation.

A source close to the Sussexes confirmed they had been in Portugal. At the time, it was believed that they were staying with Eugenie and Mr. Brooksbank, who had visited them at their home in Montecito, California.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shared never-before-seen photos as they partied with Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on Halloween in their Netflix documentary

In a snap from the big night out, Meghan can be seen posing for a playful selfie with Princess Eugenie

Jose Santos, head of the Alentejo Tourism Board, confirmed that the Sussexes had enjoyed a ‘short stay’ in CostaTerra.

“We have no idea how many people connected to cinema, royalty, art, design and fashion visit us precisely because they value discreet travel, something they don’t find in Alentejo anywhere else in Europe,” he said.

CostaTerra Golf is owned by a company founded by Mike Meldman, one of George Clooney’s business partners in tequila company Casamigos.

Mr Brooksbank previously worked as a brand ambassador for Casamigos.

The Sussexes’ main home is a £19.5 million Tuscan-style mansion in Montecito with seven bedrooms, 13 and a half bathrooms, library, cinema, gym, swimming pool and chicken coop.

A spokesperson for the Sussexes was contacted for comment.