The Sun broke the story about King Charles “evicting” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from Frogmore Cottage, their home on the Royal Windsor estate. In the Sun’s initial reporting, sources made it clear that the eviction was retaliatory, a vindictive old man punishing his son and his son’s family specifically because of Harry’s memoir. The thing is, by coming out and saying that the king is really that f–king petty and vindictive, it makes the king look pretty bad. Which is why some palace sources were sent out to soften the language about the eviction, and make it about Charles being budget and image-conscious, and the Sussexes simply had to be evicted because of Britain’s cost of living crisis. Except that Charles can’t hide the pettiness and the timeline shows that this eviction was retaliation specifically for Spare:

King Charles III is kicking Prince Harry and Meghan Markle out of Frogmore Cottage — and gifting it to disgraced royal Prince Andrew.

A source confirms to Page Six that the incoming king began the eviction process in January just one day after the redheaded royal’s memoir “Spare” hit shelves.

“This eviction surely spells the end of Harry and Meghan’s time in the UK,” a source told The Sun.

[From Page Six]

Let’s underline the point: on January 10, Spare was released. On January 11, King Charles informs the Sussexes (somehow) that they’re being evicted. Then for the next six weeks following the eviction notice, Charles then openly briefs the British media about how he expects Harry to turn up at the coronation and how everyone expects him to leave his Black wife and mixed-race children back in Montecito. These people are unhinged. And Charles wants everybody to know that he was spitting mad about Spare, to the point where he “evicted” the Sussexes 24 hours after Spare was published.

Incidentally, many of you have theorized that the Sussexes probably told Charles (or his minions) that they planned to leave Frogmore anyway and this “eviction” is pure palace spin. That’s a good theory, except that I do believe that Harry wanted to hang on to Frogmore for a few more years at least, especially since he’s still engaged in a legal battle over his police security when he visits. Keep in mind, Harry has never wavered from his position that he wants to be free to travel back to his birth country whenever he wants, and he wants his children to know Britain as well. While I think the Sussexes moved a lot of their stuff out of Frogmore last year, I do believe they intended to retain their lease on the cottage for several more years, which is why Harry renewed the lease in the first place. The Archewell spokesperson also confirmed that the palace told the Sussexes that their lease was being terminated, so…yeah. The palace instigated this, not the Sussexes.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.