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Harry & Meghan were given Frogmore Cottage by the Queen as a wedding gift. I had not heard she rescinded that gift, and they paid the renovation expenses back already. Think Harry is just loaning it short-term to his favorite cousin?

I should read the article before posting 😉

 

Edited by Hoyaheel

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Something's not adding up here.

The People article states that "This contribution as originally offered by Prince Harry has fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage, a property of Her Majesty The Queen, and will remain the U.K. residence of the Duke and his family.”   The Sun article states that " In September, it was revealed they had used private funds to pay back the cost of repairs and rent “for a number of years”. "  Granted, these are both tabloids but neither statement in any way implies that Harry and Meghan own the property.

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth is holding all of the cards and calling all of the shots but the "facts" are being spun differently in the press for whatever reason.

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1 hour ago, Maxiemom said:

Something's not adding up here.

The People article states that "This contribution as originally offered by Prince Harry has fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage, a property of Her Majesty The Queen, and will remain the U.K. residence of the Duke and his family.”   The Sun article states that " In September, it was revealed they had used private funds to pay back the cost of repairs and rent “for a number of years”. "  Granted, these are both tabloids but neither statement in any way implies that Harry and Meghan own the property.

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth is holding all of the cards and calling all of the shots but the "facts" are being spun differently in the press for whatever reason.

Before I commented above I tried to do a quick check to see if they did rent it. I read that Harry and Meghan have had to pay rent up front for Frogmore cottage, at this link from one of our main tv channels https://www.itv.com/news/2020-09-24/harry-and-meghan-pay-substantial-up-front-rent-for-frogmore-cottage 

My assumption was they are effectively subletting it to Eugenie, and trying to recoup that upfront rent from the people who’ll be living there 

Edited by Wordsworth
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Must have been in Finding Freedom? I took out from library so can't quote, but it said Frogmore was a gift like Anmer was a gift to the Cambridges and Royal Lodge was a gift to Andrew and ?? was a gift to Edward (can't remember his house name) and that the Queen likes to make these gifts to her family.

I suppose the "gift" might be lifetime use, and not property ownership, as it wasn't really specified?

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8 minutes ago, Hoyaheel said:

I suppose the "gift" might be lifetime use, and not property ownership, as it wasn't really specified?

That's the confusing part that's just not adding up for me.  If Harry and Meghan don't have a contractual claim to the property, then it's really not theirs to give away, sublet, etc.

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Meghan wrote an OPinion piece in New York TImes about the miscarriage she had this past summer https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/opinion/meghan-markle-miscarriage.html

I don't know and cannot imagine the loss. Am very happy more families & women are talking about it - I found out last month that 3 of my closest 5 college friends have had miscarriages, multiple. I wish I'd known more at the time (we're on 3 different continents) but glad to be talking about it now, to be able to love & support.....

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1 hour ago, Maxiemom said:

That's the confusing part that's just not adding up for me.  If Harry and Meghan don't have a contractual claim to the property, then it's really not theirs to give away, sublet, etc.

Using English legal terms, guess is the property always belongs to the Crown in terms of freehold, but can then be contractually leased (gifted) to whomever (Harry here) which would result in rent being payable under the lease.  
 

You can separate freehold and leasehold in England and indeed I think it’s fairly standard in their property market (when you buy a house, you’re buying a long leasehold rather than freehold). 

(disclaimer: all guesses and I’m in Scotland where it’s more common to hold freehold for your house). 

Edited by Wordsworth
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56 minutes ago, Hoyaheel said:

Meghan wrote an OPinion piece in New York TImes about the miscarriage she had this past summer https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/opinion/meghan-markle-miscarriage.html

I don't know and cannot imagine the loss. Am very happy more families & women are talking about it - I found out last month that 3 of my closest 5 college friends have had miscarriages, multiple. I wish I'd known more at the time (we're on 3 different continents) but glad to be talking about it now, to be able to love & support.....

 It’s good that these things are more and more openly discussed, and I admire Meghan (and others like her, thinking of Chrissy teigan for example) for being willing to share personal feelings like this. I have a friend who lost a baby at 20 weeks and I know she still finds it so hard.

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A very very cynical part of me feels like this is chasing the spotlight. Having watched the immense amount of press John and Chrissy got about this and the amount of goodwill it generated towards them (to be fair there was some backlash) that cynical part says she knows they need some image rehab right about now. 
 

Like, I think the sentiment is real but just jumping on the train at the right moment... I’m probably just a horrible person 

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There is a "series" (at least two we've seen) on Royal Travel - we saw the train episode and the airplanes. Was very cool!!! Was just on our PBS recently - might be available on demand if you have Passport?

https://www.pbs.org/video/secrets-royal-travel-secrets-royal-train-diwhdr/#:~:text=Secrets Of Royal Travel%3A Secrets Of The Royal Train,-Preview%3A Special | 30s&text=This show uncovers the inside,mobile home away from home.

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ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER 12/12 **8**
The $10K a month rent thing demanded by the alliterate one and her husband didn't go over well. It got to the point where the family war was going to spill out in the open. So, the newlyweds were forced to move out or have family secrets exposed.

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Kate and William didn’t necessarily get the warm welcome they were hoping for in either Scotland or Wales on that train trip - the respective first ministers basically strongly inferred they didn’t think the trip was a great idea given both countries have stringent covid travel restrictions at present. 😂

Charles and camilla are apparently not coming to balmoral for NY, as is traditional, as a result of the travel restrictions.

William and Kate were technically allowed to travel under the rules as it was “work”, but holidays are non essential even if you’re heir to the throne. 

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1. Not royal but adjacent - just saw a blurb that Pippa Middleton (can't remember married name, don't care) is pregnant with 2nd child. Oh - is it James Matthews she married? That's my dad's name/one of my maiden names - I should be able to remember that 😉 

2. Saw another blurb (maybe a crap hack tabloid, don't know) that the Queen's plan is to streamline the working Royals to an Elite 8 - the same people we saw at Windsor at the end of that silly royal train trip - Will & Kate, Charles & Camilla, Sophie & Edward (still my personal fave of that generation) and Elizabeth & Anne.....

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I’m all in for Anne, I just feel like we’d have a great time together rolling our eyes at folk and scathingly huffing “nonsense” under our breaths. 

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I honestly didn’t remember that Pippa (my phone keeps autocorrecting her name to poops) had one child let alone a second. Has she dropped off the radar or have I neglected gossip during Covid? She’s just so unremarkably boring.

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I remember baby# (the pregnancy - I don't actually remember the sex of the child!) I find her boring, but I think she's also been pretty lowkey in her marriage and early family life - they don't live in London, I doubt she's working so they're not really out with celebs in the City or anything.....And even more lowkey with COVID/quarantine....

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I haven’t seen a lot of coverage of her since her first pregnancy. I vaguely remember her first being a boy but I haven’t heard anything about her since. She’s not a royal herself so she’s a lot less visible. Plus the British tabloids after first propping her up for a few weeks after Will and Kate’s wedding then tore her to shreds for years afterwards. Even the coverage of her wedding was laced with negativity. She may now be a little more reluctant to court the publicity than she once was. 

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Pippa still gets papped walking around a fair bit, the Daily Mail are forever publishing the shots, but there’s not much to be said alongside them. I don’t have a sense she’s setting the shots up, I think it’s proximity to the crown that prompts the interest. 

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I love your "on the ground" reporting Wordsworth - thank you!!!

I have noticed that the google algorithms pick up on my BRF interest - I get all sorts of UK paper/tabloid stories popping up as "suggested" for me now 🤣

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Haha I hate myself for going to the Daily Mail website every time, but I take some comfort in the fact I don’t know who half the people they feature these days are! 

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