Prince Harry and Meghan describe their humble life at Nottingham Cottage
Long before their rift with the royal family made headlines, tension may have been quietly building between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton. According to former royal butler Paul Burrell, Meghan reportedly felt envious of Kate’s luxurious lifestyle at Kensington Palace even before marrying Harry.
In his upcoming memoir The Royal Insider, Burrell claims Meghan couldn’t help comparing her modest surroundings at Nottingham Cottage to the grand scale of Apartment 1A, where William and Kate lived. Their residence boasted its own ballroom and sprawling rooms, while the Sussexes began married life in a small two-bedroom, 17th-century cottage on the palace grounds. Burrell suggests Meghan’s feelings of being overshadowed may have started after she and Harry were invited to dinner at William and Kate’s apartment, hinting, “This may be where the trouble began.”
Nottingham Cottage did hold sentimental value for the Sussexes — it’s where Harry proposed over a roast chicken dinner in 2017. Still, in their Harry & Meghan documentary, the couple admitted their first home was far from the palace lifestyle outsiders imagined. Meghan remarked, “As far as people were concerned, we were living in a palace. But we were living in a cottage… Nottingham Cottage was small.” Harry joked about the low ceilings, saying, “The whole thing was really small, on a slight lean with low ceilings. Whoever lived there before must have been small.”
Even media icon Oprah Winfrey was taken aback when she visited for tea, reportedly telling them, “No one would ever believe it.” Meghan summed it up as a chapter of their lives that few could picture from the outside — a humble start behind the palace walls that contrasted sharply with the grandeur next door.
