WHEN Meghan Markle started dating Prince Harry, she didn’t realise she ‘wasn’t going to live in a palace’, according to royal author Tom Bower.
Before they relocated to California, the couple first lived together in the modest four-bedroom Nottingham Cottage, where Harry proposed.
They later relocated to the five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
Despite it undergoing a £2.4million renovation, the author claims the former Suits actress found it a “jail sentence.”
He said to Closer!: “She didn’t realise when she hooked up with Harry that he didn’t have much money and wasn’t going to live in a palace.
“They didn’t have the pressure [to make a huge income while in the UK] when they didn’t have a very large house overlooking the pacific.
“Meghan never wanted to live in a small house in England. For her, Frogmore was like a jail sentence.”
According to the Mirror, Meghan was worth a whopping £5million in net value thanks to her various TV and film credits.
The couple have since moved across the pond and now live in the swanky Montecito neighbourhood in California in a £12million mansion.
The sprawling nine-bed, 16-bath home in Santa Barbara sits on 5.4 acres of land and features a library, office, spa, gym, game room, wine cellar and five-car garage, it’s believed.
The estate also boasts sweeping lawns, tiered rose gardens, tall Italian cypress trees, blooming lavender, olive trees, a tennis court, tea house, children’s cottage and a pool.
When they stepped back from royal duties, they said in their statement they would be “financially independent” as they “carve out a progressive new role”.
They have since looked to capitalise on their global fame in order to become financially independent.
They have banked an estimated £118million from multi-media deals, working with the likes of Spotify and Netflix.
The Prince and Princess of Wales used to reside full-time in the 20-room Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace.
The London dwelling is spread over four floors and includes five reception rooms, three main bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, as well as his-and-hers dressing rooms.
However, they recently left their swanky, inner-city lifestyle behind for an idyllic way of living in the more peaceful Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.
Prince William and Kate Middleton, both 41, uprooted Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, during the summer of 2022 for a more rural life.
They reportedly spent around a year hunting for a home in Windsor, which would be close to a school that they could all attend together.
They settled on Adelaide Cottage, as first revealed by The Sun, because they believed it needed no major renovations.
With its candyfloss pink exterior and rolling grounds, the royal pad looks straight from a fairytale.
It’s also perfect for the school run, as it’s a nine-mile drive to Ascot where the kids attend the £7,000-a-term Lambrook School.
It has just four bedrooms – one bedroom for each of the children and the royal couple.
