Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decorated their first home with lamps from IKEA and second-hand furniture – Harry's new book reveals.
The anticipated memoir, Spare, is due for official release tomorrow, January 10th, but it has already made headlines in recent days. Early copies – accidentally sold in Spain last week before they were pulled from the shelves – shared a preview of the life of the couple, who resigned as working royals to raise their family in Montecito, California.
A section explores the differences in royal residences – most specifically between Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace (where his brother and Catherine, now the Prince and Princess of Wales, lived) and Nottingham Cottage, where Harry and Meghan moved after their marriage in May 2018.
In June of that year, Prince Harry claimed to have visited Prince William and Princess Catherine's apartment with Meghan to make peace after some disagreements. However, after the meeting, Harry writes that his sibling's newly-renovated apartment left him and Meghan feeling 'embarrassed' by their 'cozy' home.
In an extract acquired by the Daily Mail (opens in new tab), Harry writes: 'We congratulated them on the renovation without holding back the compliments while feeling embarrassed of our IKEA lamps and the second-hand sofa we'd recently bought on sale with Meg's credit card on sofa.com (opens in new tab).'
In contrast, Harry hints that Prince William's home was a trove of more luxurious decorating ideas. 'The wallpaper, the ceiling trim, the walnut bookshelves filled with volumes of peaceful colors, priceless works of art. Magnificent. Like a museum,' he says. It is not known which IKEA model the couple chose; however, the retailer has a series of iconic products – with the HEKTAR (opens in new tab) floor lamp and TORARED (opens in new tab) shade among their top-sellers.
Despite being known as an 'apartment,' the Prince and Princess of Wales' London base is the size of a large house – covering four stories, with 20 rooms in total. Prince William and Catherine have since moved to Adelaide Cottage, a significantly smaller home in Windsor.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved into Nottingham Cottage (also known as 'Nott Cott'), as the Prince and Princess of Wales had done after their marriage in 2011. Celebrity interior designer Kelly Hoppen (opens in new tab) decorated the cottage for William and Catherine, who remained there until 2013, before the birth of their first son, Prince George.
In their recent Netflix documentary, Meghan and Harry offered more information about their time in Nottingham Cottage – sharing that Harry would often hit his head in the 'small' property. 'It was just a chapter in our lives where I don’t think anyone could believe what it was actually like behind the scenes,' Meghan adds.
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