Queen Elizabeth's 'generous gesture' to Harry and Meghan in gifting them Frogmore Cottage

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had hoped to move into Windsor Castle soon after their royal wedding, a new book claims.

Instead, the late Queen gifted Prince Harry and Meghan the smaller Frogmore Cottage because the home was the monarch's "backyard, her solitude".

The claim is made in a new book about the royal family by Katie Nicholl, The New Royals.

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The book also details the Queen's reaction when Prince Harry and Meghan decided against bringing their newborn son Archie to visit Balmoral Castle a year later.

Prince Harry and Meghan were living at Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace before their wedding.

But soon after they married on May 19, 2018, the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex relocated to the Windsor Estate.

They moved into Frogmore Cottage, a stone's throw from the castle.

However, they had been hoping for a suite of apartments inside Windsor Castle and not the modest cottage on its grounds.

According to Lady Elizabeth Anson, who was a close friend of the Queen and died in 2020, the gift of Frogmore Cottage was "generous gesture" from the monarch.

"The cottage was a big deal," Lady Anson says in the book.

"The Queen's entrance into the gardens is right next to their cottage. It is essentially her backyard, her solitude, and her privacy.

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"She was giving that up in gifting Harry and Meghan Frogmore Cottage. We all thought it was very big of her.

"She said, 'I hope they'll respect it'."

The couple made extensive renovations to the property and lived there until soon after the birth of their son, Archie.

Prince Harry and Meghan later moved to Canada, before buying a lavish property in Montecito, California.

But they retain Frogmore Cottage as their official base while in the UK and stayed there most recently when the Queen died.

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Nicholls' book also details the decision by Prince Harry and Meghan not to visit the Queen at Balmoral Castle in the summer of 2019, soon after the birth of Archie.

It's tradition for members of the Queen's family to visit the monarch at Balmoral during her stay between late July and October.

But Harry and Meghan chose to holiday in Spain and the south of France instead.

"There were raised eyebrows when Harry and Meghan declined an invite from the Queen to spend a long weekend at Balmoral in the summer of 2019 – when she traditionally hosts a weekend for her grandchildren and a special sleepover for her great-grandchildren," Nicholl writes.

"'Playing happy families at Balmoral didn't really fit their narrative,' I was told by a source close to the Sussexes."

Soon after that holiday, Prince Harry and Meghan travelled to Canada where they would remain until January 2020, when they announced their intention to step back as senior working royals and move to America.