Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had quite the decade, and their homes have moved right along with them. The couple met in 2016 after being introduced by a mutual friend, when Meghan was best known for playing Rachel Zane on Suits and Harry was one of the world’s most recognizable royals. Things moved quickly, with a May 2018 wedding at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and the arrival of their son, Archie, less than a year later.
Meghan settled into royal life with a growing slate of charitable causes and public engagements, while Harry was juggling his own duties as the Duke of Sussex. Their early homes were very much part of that world and often overlapped with the lives of Harry’s brother, Prince William, and Kate Middleton, whose own royal property story has since taken them from Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage and, most recently, Forest Lodge at Windsor.
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they were stepping back as senior working royals and seeking more independence. The couple had initially hoped to carve out a hybrid role, earning their own income while continuing to support the monarchy, but that arrangement was rejected. Their choice was also driven by a desire to get out of the royal system, which they felt had left them exposed to tabloid scrutiny and unable to control key parts of their lives, including their security and finances. The Sussexes subsequently landed in the U.S., where Harry began building a career outside the monarchy and Meghan returned to the entertainment industry.
Between their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Harry’s memoir Spare, and Meghan’s lifestyle ventures With Love, Meghan and As Ever, the couple remained firmly in the spotlight—even as their sometimes unflattering accounts of royal life have deepened tensions with the family. They welcomed daughter Lilibet in 2021 and settled into their new life abroad.
Now, six years after leaving the UK, the family is preparing to spend an extended stretch of time back in Britain. They’re said to have no plans to resume royal duties and will keep their home in California but are once again looking for a private base in the UK. It’s an unexpected turn for a couple who have spent years building a life largely on their own terms and this new chapter undoubtedly comes with another change of address… or two.
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Nottingham Cottage
Image Credit: Google Earth Harry’s Kensington Palace story started in 2012, when he left Clarence House, the official home of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, and moved into a one-bedroom apartment attached to Nottingham Cottage. At the time, Prince William and Kate were living in the cottage, and after they moved into a larger residence within the palace the following year, Harry took over “Nott Cott” himself. The 1,300-square-foot, two-bedroom house was a far cry from the grand palaces and royal residences associated with the family. Harry later poked fun at its low ceilings and cramped rooms in his memoir, noting that despite the Kensington Palace address, it was “no palace.” The cottage dates back to the 17th century and had once housed Queen Elizabeth II’s nanny.
Meghan eventually joined him there after their engagement, and the modest cottage became their first home together. It was also where Harry proposed.
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Cotswolds Rental
Image Credit: Getty Images The Cotswolds had a brief starring role in the Sussexes’ real estate history. Shortly after their wedding, Harry and Meghan reportedly leased Westfield Large, a four-bedroom farmhouse on the Great Tew Estate near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The roughly $5.4 million property stretched across four acres and included a separate two-bedroom cottage and a converted barn with two kitchens and a heated patio.
The setup was decidedly more countryside than palace, but the address came with some A-list celebrity neighbors, David and Victoria Beckham, whose 26-acre country home is also on the Great Tew Estate. Harry and Meghan’s stint was short-lived, though. In March 2019, after photographers located the property and took aerial pictures, the couple quickly packed up and moved out.
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Frogmore Cottage
Image Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images Before Archie was born, Harry and Meghan upsized, moving into Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate. The five-bedroom house was built in 1801 under Queen Charlotte. Queen Elizabeth II gave the cottage to the couple following their wedding, but it had been divided into five staff apartments and therefore needed substantial work before they could move in.
With the cost reported at roughly $3 million, or 2.4 million pounds, the renovation took about six months and included new heating, electrical, gas, and water systems. The work was initially covered by the Sovereign Grant, but Harry and Meghan later paid the money back after stepping down as working royals. They left Frogmore as a full-time home in early 2020 but continued using it when they returned to the UK, including during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee and funeral events in 2022. In early 2023, they were asked to vacate permanently.
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Mille Fleurs
Image Credit: MARK GOODNOW/AFP via Getty Images After announcing their decision to step back from royal life, Harry and Meghan decamped to Canada, where they spent part of their time at Mille Fleurs, a secluded waterfront estate on Vancouver Island. Music producer David Foster reportedly helped arrange the stay through his wife, Katharine McPhee, who has been friends with Meghan for years.
The roughly 11,400-square-foot mansion sits on Towner Bay in North Saanich and was something of a real estate mystery at the time. CBC later linked the property to Russian billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner through offshore trusts. When the estate was listed in 2012 for $18 million, records show it had a wine-tasting room, wet bar, media room, wood-burning pizza oven, landscaped gardens, and a guesthouse.
Harry and Meghan stayed in Canada until March 2020, when they headed for California.
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Tyler Perry’s Beverly Hills Mansion
Image Credit: Google Earth Before they settled in Montecito, when Harry and Meghan first arrived in the U.S., they reportedly stayed at writer, actor, and director Tyler Perry’s enormous Beverly Hills estate for several months while they figured out their next move. On 22 acres inside the guard-gated Beverly Ridge Estates, the Tuscan-style mansion spans some 25,000 square feet with eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. Perry bought the property in 2004 and spent years building out the massive compound, including an extensive security system.
The connection was unexpected because Meghan had never actually met Perry before he offered the family a place to stay, she told The Cut. They had first been in touch after he reached out sometime around her 2018 wedding to offer his support, and she eventually took up that offer when the family was figuring out where to call home.
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Montecito Estate
Image Credit: Google Earth A few months later, Harry and Meghan had a permanent California address in the seaside town of Montecito. In June 2020, their company Rockbridge LLC paid $14.65 million for a roughly 7.38-acre estate. Records show the approximately 14,500-square-foot house was built in 2003 and has nine bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, and a home theater, along with a tennis court, a guesthouse, a tea house, and extensive gardens. The property had once been listed for $34 million and was sold to the couple by an LLC connected to the late Russian investor Sergey Grishin.
Three days after buying the estate, Rockbridge reportedly took out a $9.52 million adjustable-rate mortgage from City National Bank. The house has also become the backdrop for much of the couple’s post-royal life, although Meghan’s Netflix lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, was filmed elsewhere. The Sussexes reportedly plan to keep the Montecito house even as they reestablish roots in Britain.
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Portugal Vacation Property
Image Credit: PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images The Sussexes added a European getaway to their portfolio in 2023, paying about 6.3 million pounds, or roughly $7.8 million, for a home at CostaTerra, an exclusive gated community on Portugal’s Alentejo coast, The Times reported. The 722-acre resort sits about 90 minutes south of Lisbon, between Comporta and Melides, and has around 300 homes, an 18-hole Tom Fazio-designed golf course, an equestrian center, and a spa, as well as tennis, pickleball, and padel courts.
A family connection makes the choice seem a little less random: Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, have been splitting their time between Portugal and the U.K. since 2022, with Brooksbank working in marketing and sales for the Discovery Land Company at CostaTerra. Harry and Meghan reportedly visited them at the resort after the 2023 Invictus Games. Details of the Sussexes’ house itself have remained under wraps.
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New U.K. Home
Image Credit: David Goddard/Getty Images Harry and Meghan appear to be zeroing in on the Cotswolds for their British home base. The area would be familiar territory. Since their short-lived 2018-19 rental in the picturesque region, the couple reportedly returned during a July visit to Britain to scout properties.
Royal reporter Tom Sykes has said the house hunt is a major topic of conversation among locals, with Stow-on-the-Wold reportedly at the center of the chatter. One sprawling mansion the Sussexes are said to be considering carries a £12 million price tag, or about $16 million, although there’s no confirmation that any deal or offer has been made.
The latest reports suggest the couple is still searching, with Meghan allegedly looking for at least nine bedrooms, plus room for a film studio, while Harry wants “a lot, and I mean a lot” of land without public footpaths crossing the property, Daily Mail reported. For now, the family is staying in a spare house belonging to a wealthy friend on the edge of the Cotswolds.
The couple already has some well-connected friends in the neighborhood. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have made the Cotswolds a second home, previously listing one of their country estates for $30 million. DeGeneres, who has long maintained a home in Montecito, has also allegedly pitched in with their house hunt, though there’s no indication that her own property is under consideration—or that she’s the wealthy friend they’re currently staying with.
