Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank will now split their time between Portugal and Frogmore Cottage, it was reported today – as a royal expert said Meghan and Harry’s decision to renew their lease on the property will enable them to visit as much as they want and ’cause complete chaos’.
The Brooksbanks have been subletting Frogmore from the Sussexes but will now spend part of the year at the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, a luxury resort an hour south of Lisbon on Portugal’s picturesque Atlantic coast.
It comes after Mr Brooksbank, 36, landed a job with property tycoon Mike Meldman, a longstanding business partner of George Clooney, according to the Telegraph.
Eugenie’s husband had previously worked for tequila brand Casamigos, which the actor helped found. It was sold to Diageo in 2017 for £550million. He is now working for Mr Meldman’s Discovery Land Company, which has been developing CostaTerra since 2019.
A source close to the couple said: ‘Jack is now working for Mike Meldman and they are splitting their time between Portugal and London.’
Mr Clooney, his human rights lawyer wife Amal and their four-year-old twins Ella and Alexander may become their Brooksbanks’ neighbours after it emerged they are planning to buy a plot on the 300-home, 722-acre development.
Eugenie, 32, is expected to continue working as a director for the London art gallery Hauser & Wirth on a hybrid basis, while the couple will continue to stay at Frogmore while they are back in the UK. The couple have a one-year-old son, August.
Mr Meldman acquired the 722-acre plot which runs along the Atlantic coast in 2019, with an initial £435million investment.
The resort’s website says that a wellness centre, equestrian centre, community village, 18-star golf course, 146 single-family homes and 29 other residences will be completed by spring next year.
It comes as the Brooksbanks temporarily vacated Frogmore as the Sussex prepare to stay there during their time in the UK.
Royal author Angela Levin suggested the Sussexes’ decision to renew their lease on the property could be linked to their mooted deal with Netflix to film a documentary about their life.
One is that they need to get back within the Royal Family so that Netflix is happy and they can do some good filming,’ she told MailOnline.
‘With this lease they’ll be able to come back and forth much as they want and cause complete chaos.
‘Meghan didn’t even like Frogmore. It only has five bedrooms unlike their mansion in Los Angeles. So I don’t think they’ll be planning on staying there for long.’
In another development, Prince William and Prince Harry were said to be working on improving their bond with regular video calls and messages and are ‘very much back on their old buddy terms’.
An insider explained the tension between the two brothers since the Duke of Sussex, 37, moved to California and quit his role in the royal family is being left in the past as they are now in frequent contact alongside their respective children.
The source told The Mirror that Harry and William are having one-to-ones without their wives.
They said: ‘The brothers needed time for everything to settle down. The family, including William, had been disappointed in the way Harry and Meghan chose to leave the royal family.
‘But now there is a strong feeling that what happened is in the past and that they have moved on… It seems that the two of them have healed the rift and are very much back on their old buddy terms.’
Ahead of this week’s Jubilee celebrations, the Queen is set to meet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter Lilibet for the first time at the soon-to-be one-year-old’s birthday party on Saturday.
The 96-year-old monarch, who Lilibet is named after, is likely to miss her favourite sporting event, the Derby horse races at Epsom, for the little one’s birthday.
Since she was born on 4 June 2021, parents Prince Harry and Meghan have only been to the UK once, in a fleeting visit where they made a detour to see Her Majesty while on their way to the Invictus Games in The Hague in April.
In their first trip to the UK with Archie and Lilibet, Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, are going to stay at the property during their four-day trip over to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Baby Lilibet, was born in California unlike her brother Archie, three, who was born at London’s Portland Hospital, a Royal favourite. The Queen met Archie two days after he was born on 6 May 2019.
Frogmore was converted into one home in 2019 for Harry and Meghan, having previously been five separate properties for staff working on the Windsor Estate.
The whole renovation famously cost the Sovereign Grant £2.4million.
The family home is thought to have five bedrooms, a kitchen, a sitting room and a nursery first designed for Archie.
Eugenie has previously shared glimpses of her interior redesign on Instagram. One photo of Mr Brooksbank asleep with August on his chest showed a neutral room with a white linen sofa, beige panelled walls and bohemian cream and black scatter cushions.
Eugenie has also been pictured sitting on a cream sofa in front of a blue painted bookshelf in another room. This time there was far more colour with red, fluffy trimmed cushions and a small green cushion with the personalised embroidery ‘August born in February’.
Other photos posted have shown a kitchen with white painted cabinets and a white tiled floor.
The Queen has extended an olive branch to Harry and Meghan, who will join the royal family to celebrate the monarch’s historic Platinum Jubilee during the national Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.
As revealed by the Daily Mail on Saturday, it is understood that the Sussexes are likely to attend at least one other public engagement – although sources have warned that the public should ‘not expect them at every event’.
Sources say the 96-year-old monarch is ‘looking forward’ to seeing her great-grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet.
The Queen is likely to spend time with the family privately on Saturday, when Lilibet celebrates her first birthday.
Frogmore Cottage is only a short drive away from the Queen’s private apartments at Windsor Castle.