In an interview published this week, royal author Ingrid Seward said the Duchess of Sussex believed she would move into a royal castle on marrying Prince Harry and grew "incredibly envious" of the Princess of Wales when she did not. Seward made the remarks while promoting her book My Mother to the Daily Telegraph, where she recounted conversations and observations about life inside the royal household.
Seward told the Telegraph she had "heard Meghan actually thought she was going to be a princess and live in Windsor Castle," and contrasted that expectation with the actual lodgings the Sussexes occupied early in their marriage. "Instead, there's William and Kate with this beautiful house, while they are stuck in Nottingham Cottage which Harry used to call 'my hovel,'" she said.
Seward placed those individual circumstances in the broader context of how many members of the royal family are housed. She noted that, contrary to fairy-tale expectations of castle life, most princesses and senior royals often live in cottages around Windsor, apartments at Kensington Palace or other grace-and-favour houses provided by the Crown. Her comments framed what she described as a mismatch between private expectations and institutional realities for some new members of the family.
The remarks come amid renewed media attention on the relationship and public images of the Sussexes and the Waleses. Earlier this week, the Princess of Wales and Prince William made a public appearance at London’s Natural History Museum, where the princess debuted a noticeably lighter hair color. That appearance drew wide online reaction, and a separate opinion column in the Daily Mail linked the intense public scrutiny over the princess’s hairstyle to long-running debates about Meghan Markle’s suitability for royal life.
Both the Seward interview and the column are examples of how books and opinion pieces continue to fuel media coverage of private dynamics within the royal family. The Sussexes stepped back from full-time royal duties in 2020 and later relocated to the United States; since then, commentators and authors have repeatedly revisited early episodes in their time as working royals, including housing, titles and relations with other members of the family.
Royal residences and who gets which house have long been part of public discussion about precedent and privilege within the monarchy. Nottingham Cottage, on the grounds of Kensington Palace, has historically been used as a smaller, temporary residence for young royals, while properties such as Windsor Castle and grace-and-favour apartments serve different purposes and ranks within the institution. Seward’s account highlights those established arrangements while reporting an anecdotal belief she attributes to the duchess.
Representatives for the duchess and for Seward did not immediately respond to requests for comment beyond the interview published in the Telegraph. Authors, columnists and commentators are continuing to publish memoirs and opinion pieces about the British royal family, and media coverage of such releases often prompts renewed attention to longstanding personal and institutional tensions.
The debate underscores how personal expectations, media narratives and the symbolic role of residences remain part of the public conversation about the monarchy. Seward’s remarks add to a series of accounts that journalists and authors have offered in recent years, each contributing to ongoing coverage of the relationships, living arrangements and public roles of senior royal figures.