Reports that Prince Harry stayed at the ancestral home of Princess Diana during a private visit to Britain to attend his uncle’s memorial service last month rather than a royal residence could show that he’s found a “home away from home” without ties to the monarchy, according to a new episode of Newsweek‘s The Royal Report podcast.

It was reported in the British press that Harry and Prince William were both present at the memorial service for Lord Robert Fellowes in Norfolk, England, on August 29.

Fellowes was the brothers’ uncle by marriage, having married an elder sister of Princess Diana, Lady Jane Spencer, in 1978. Between 1990 and 1999, Fellowes served as private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II and lived for a number of years at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.

Prince Harry photographed in London, May 2024. And (inset) Althorp House photographed March 2018. The prince reportedly stayed at the residence owned by his uncle Earl Spencer last month. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images/David Goddard/Getty Images
After the memorial, People magazine reported that the prince had stayed with his maternal uncle, Earl Spencer, during his trip to Britain, at the Spencer family’s ancestral country home, Althorp, in the county of Northamptonshire.

Althorp is where Princess Diana lived during her teenage years and was a regular visitor after her marriage into the royal family. She is buried on the 13,000 acre estate on an island located in the middle of an ornamental lake.

Harry’s visit would have been close to the August 31 27th anniversary of Diana’s death.

Harry and William have regularly visited the estate since their mother’s death. In his memoir, Spare, Harry wrote that he took Meghan Markle to his mother’s graveside for the first time in 2022, after their split from the monarchy and move to the U.S.

Since the couple were asked to vacate their Frogmore Cottage home in the grounds of Windsor Castle in 2023, Harry and Meghan have no U.K. residence.

With the duke clearly attached to Althorp, Newsweek‘s Jack Royston told Royal Report listeners that the estate could provide the prince with the British home base he’s been missing.

“I’m going to be keeping an eye out for whether we see Harry stay at Althorp again on future visits to Britain outside the month of August,” he said.

“Because obviously, the question is: is this Harry’s new arrangement, is he going to stay with the Spencers now when he comes to Britain, or was this specifically about the fact that it was a Spencer family event and that it was the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death?

“It’s totally possible that it was a complete one-off because of those factors, and that we might not see Harry stay there again, but if he does, it could be that Althorp becomes a kind of home away from home for Harry when he’s in Britain.”

Royston noted that if Harry did decide to spend more time at Althorp, its geographical location could prove difficult.

“He does need a place to stay, because obviously Harry and Meghan got evicted from their UK home, Frogmore Cottage, by the king in 2023,” he said.

“So they don’t have that base anymore, which means there’s always this kind of question mark about where they’re going to stay. Althorp is up in kind of the middle of England, so it’s not super close to London. So if Harry has London events, he might choose to stay in London. It would be quite a lengthy drive to get down from Althorp to the capital, but it’s an interesting one to keep an eye on.”

Newsweek approached representatives for Prince Harry via email for comment.