Meghan Markle‘s feud with the Royal Family — or “Megxit” as the U.K. press insisted on dubbing it — is legendary at this point, but how exactly did it all start? According to Prince Harry‘s book Spare and other sources, things were actually hunky dory between the former actress and her new in-laws at first — Prince William and Kate were even starstruck the first time they met Meghan because they avid Suits fans!
Somewhere along the way, though, Meghan’s outsider perspective became less of an asset and more of an annoyance, and things clearly got so bad that Harry and his wife couldn’t even bear to live on the same continent as the Royals. The first crack in the fairy tale’s happy ending apparently appeared early on, when Meghan took an instant dislike to the “small” — yet historic — first home she shared with her husband.
Meghan’s big bugbear about a little house that started her Royal resentment
New book Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants has many juicy tidbits for those searching for Royal gossip, and one of the most intriguing is the claim that Meghan’s issues with the Royal Family, and their treatment of Harry, date back to when she moved in with the future duke for the first time — and she was immediately offended by her new home’s “tiny” size.
When they began their relationship, Harry and Meghan dwelled in Nottingham Cottage, located in the grounds of Kensington Palace in London. Although the couple no doubt had a lot of happy times there — it’s where Harry proposed, for one — Meghan was mostly shocked by its lack of space and this is where she formed her opinion that the Royals were not showing Harry the same respect as they did William. From this small seed of distrust a mighty oak of outrage did grow.
As a former Royal staffer told the book’s author Tom Quinn (via The Mirror):
“Starting life as a member of the Royal Family in Nottingham Cottage was the beginning of all Meghan’s troubles – she felt it was so small that it must be a reflection on how the Royal Family were belittling her husband. She just didn’t understand that real royals don’t care much about houses and material possessions because having always had them they take them for granted.”
The fact that Harry was literally living in his brother’s shadow — Kensington Palace is William and Kate’s official residence — inspired “a vague feeling” from Meghan that Harry was treated as “less important than his brother.” Another source argued that it wasn’t until Meghan voiced her concern that it even occurred to Harry he might be being treated as second-best to his older sibling.
“Meghan spotted immediately that Harry wasn’t quite as central to things as his brother William,” this source alleged. “This was the start of the whole grievance thing about being the spare. I don’t think Harry had even thought much about the fact that he was a spare until well into his marriage.”
The claims that Meghan’s problems with the size of Nottingham Cottage — known by the family as Nott Cott — was so integral to her diminishing respect for the Royals are new, but it’s certainly true that she was no fan of the place. “Kensington Palace sounds very regal, of course it does,” Meghan said on the topic, back in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan docuseries. “It says ‘palace’ in the name! But Nottingham Cottage was so small.”
As it happens, at 1,324 sq ft, the cottage is actually 25% bigger than the average U.K. home — and it is a place of historical significance, dating back to 1689 and having been designed by celebrated architect Sir Christopher Wren. That said, Harry joked in the same series that the old-fashioned Tudor ceilings were so short he would frequently bump his head. To be fair to the Royals, though, the cottage had always been intended to only be Harry’s “bachelor pad” and he was swiftly gifted the much grander Frogmore Cottage upon his marriage to Meghan in 2018.
Nevertheless, the damage had been done to Meghan’s perception of the family and her disdain for the pokey house would soon bring down the Royal house of cards.
Published: Feb 18, 2025 01:57 pm