Meghan Markle Was Shocked By This Major Difference Between Harry & William

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Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, reportedly isn't a big fan of small spaces. When she started dating Prince Harry in 2016, he showed her his humble home, Nottingham Cottage, which he referred to as "Not Cott." The two-bedroom, one-bathroom dwelling reportedly had Meghan questioning why Harry's brother, Prince William, got to live in Kensington Palace Apartment 1A with its 20 rooms, while Harry had to make do with (gasp) one bathroom and two bedrooms as a single man. Note: William and Princess Catherine were already married with two children by then, and they lived in Nottingham Cottage before Harry did.

Robert Jobson addressed this saga in his 2024 book, "Catherine, The Princess of Wales." He wrote (via InStyle): "When they went to have drinks at William and Catherine's palatial apartment, she [Meghan] was apparently 'taken aback' at the disparity between the brothers. Meghan understood that William was above her husband in the royal pecking order as the heir to the throne, but she thought Harry was also a royal prince, so he deserved more materially. She was piqued by the disparity." 

In Harry's tell-all memoir, "Spare," the duke claimed he felt "embarrassed" to take Meghan to the cottage. "To my relief she made no sign of dismay, gave no indication of disillusionment. Until she got inside. Then she said something about a frat house," the prince wrote. He complained that the space was small and built for people who were much shorter than him. Harry also recalled how wowed Meghan was by William and Catherine's residence. When Meghan was pregnant with Archie, Harry said he called Queen Elizabeth II because the house somehow became even smaller then. This so-called small cottage is over 25% bigger than the average U.K. home, per The Times. Just saying.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's abrupt exit from the U.K. was apparently not as sudden a decision as it seemed at the time. According to royal author Tom Quinn's book, "Yes Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants," the seeds for their eventual departure were sown the moment Meghan realized that dating a prince doesn't come with a castle, but rather a small cottage. Quinn claimed that Meghan thought Harry's family was treating him differently from Prince William and that it was terribly unfair. Quinn also addressed the rumors that Meghan's ex-staffers were left shaken from her alleged bullying, which he claimed could commence as early as 5 a.m.

Because of their small apartment, Meghan believed that the royals were really treating her future husband like a spare, with Quinn saying a palace source disclosed to him that the reason Harry became unhappy with his royal life is that Meghan pointed these things out to him. "[It was] the start of the whole grievance thing about being the spare," the insider alleged to Quinn (via News24).

And indeed, in his memoir, Harry even complained about the fact that he had a smaller bedroom than William when they were kids. "My half of the room was far smaller, less luxurious," Harry recalled (via Marie Claire). "I never asked why. I didn't care. But I also didn't need to ask." Certainly, his room was still much more spacious and "luxurious" than the average kid's. The prince might have realized just how privileged he was had he not been so focused on what he didn't have.