Prince Harry Lends His Royal Frogmore Home To Cousin Princess Eugenie

Princess Eugenie is moving into Frogmore Cottage, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s home in the U.K., to start a family with her husband Jack Brooksbank after her recent pregnancy announcement. The news comes as a shock to the many outraged that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had to pay for rent and refurbishments to live in their U.K. residence in the first place.

When Prince Harry and Markle “stepped back” as royals earlier this year after facing what The Queen called “intense scrutiny,” many people who closely followed the royal family were outraged.

Many were furious that their move to America meant they’d be abandoning the home that they’d just spent 2.4 million pounds of taxpayer money to renovate, and some called for the Duke and Duchess to repay the 2.4 million back. The couple paid back the full amount by early September.

Frogmore Cottage is still the Crown Estate’s property, but because the Duke and Duchess have paid for its renovations and several months of rent in advance, it is their home and they largely control what to do with it – a Buckingham Palace spokesperson has even called the cottage their “private residence.”

Now, the couple has chosen to open the cottage to Princess Eugenie, so conversations about paying Frogmore’s rent have opened up again. Many have noted that it seems like the princess and Brooksbank are staying at the residence free of charge, or perhaps even at the expense of the Crown Estate, and are wondering why their presence in the cottage doesn’t cause similar upset to Prince Harry and Markle’s.

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“Harry & Meghan were endlessly vilified for staying at Frogmore,” one Twitter user commented. “Expecting the same outrage for the non-working royals who are about to freely occupy the same house H&M paid renovations and rent for. The same non-working royals who are the daughter and son-in-law of the pedophile”

“People that demanded Harry & Meghan pay for Frogmore Cottage, did you get your money back?” another user joked. “Are you upset that non working royals Jack & Eugenie will now live there for free? Are you upset that they left their tax payer funded home or is that outrage only for the black girl?”

“So #HarryandMeghan were given #FrogmoreCottage – comp tiny Crown property needing major work,” British historian Kate Williams pointed out. “Other royals live in huge properties, renovated for millions. Sussexes were endlessly attacked for the 2.4 mil, repaid it. Now E and husband are moving in – and no comment??”

Later in a thread of tweets about how other royals used taxpayer money to renovate their homes and the “mass hysteria” surrounding the Duke and Duchess’s life, Williams added that she doesn’t expect self-awareness from Prince Harry and Markle’s critics as royals continue to use taxpayer funds.

“I wonder if in future, as royals continue to live in Crown properties, renovated by the Crown, collective amnesia / denial will descend about how society wildly attacked #HarryandMeghan for doing the same,” Williams speculated. “I think so, eg ‘Why did they leave? We were so NICE to them’ #gaslighting”

Despite the controversy around the move, and the property remaining under the Duke and Duchess’s name, many have chosen to interpret the announcement as good news – it seems as though Prince Harry and Markle are well on their way to the independence they desired when leaving the royals in January.

“Why am I so damn happy that Harry and Meghan are letting Eugenie and her husband stay at Frogmore?” one user asked, alongside a GIF a child doing a happy dance. “It means, what we been knew, they ain’t going back. And they are saying F– that one year review.!!“