Princess Eugenie and husband Jack move to Portugal as Sussexes renew Frogmore Cottage lease

It is billed as offering “the simple luxury of natural European living” an hour south of Lisbon on the picturesque Portuguese coast.

And now the luxurious CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club is playing host to royalty after Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank moved to the exclusive resort with their one-year-old son, August.

The couple have left Frogmore Cottage, the Windsor home they sublet from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and are now dividing their time between the Atlantic coast club and London. Prince Harry and Meghan have just renewed their lease on the property, which is a stone’s throw from the Queen’s Windsor Castle home.

It comes after Stowe-educated Mr Brooksbank, 36, landed a new job with multimillionaire property tycoon Mike Meldman, who is one of George Clooney’s business partners.

Princess Eugenie’s husband of nearly four years had been working for Casamigos, the tequila brand founded by the Hollywood actor, Mr Meldman and Rande Gerber, the husband of supermodel Cindy Crawford, which the trio sold to the Diageo drinks company for £550 million in 2017.

But he is now working for Mr Meldman’s Discovery Land Company, which has been developing the 722-acre plot, tucked between the sought-after villages of Comporta and Melides, since 2019. Mr Clooney, his wife Amal and their four-year-old twins Ella and Alexander could soon become neighbours after it was revealed he is planning to buy a plot on the estate in the upmarket Alentejo region.

A source close to the couple confirmed: “Jack is now working for Mike Meldman and they are splitting their time between Portugal and London.

“It’s a very exciting time for them.”

The first phase of the 300-home development, which also boasts a mile of beachfront, an 18-hole golf course, spa and equestrian centre, is just about to be released and Mr Brookbank is understood to be working on marketing, sales and promotion. Prices start at £3.6 million.

It is thought Eugenie, 32, is continuing to work as a director for the London art gallery Hauser & Wirth on a hybrid basis with the couple staying at Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace when they are in the UK.

According to its glossy website, CostaTerra “offers a wide range of real estate options, from large estate homesites to contemporary coastal villas, turnkey club residences and custom luxury homes”.

It adds: “The combination of our unmatched environmentally thoughtful setting, family-focused experience-based lifestyle, and true exclusivity, make ownership here one of the rarest opportunities in Europe.”

Aimed predominantly at the US market, the website shows that flights from New York to Faro take just six-and-a-half hours.

Milwaukee-born, Stanford-educated Mr Meldman, described as one of the most well-connected businessmen in America, has a portfolio of more than two dozen high-end residential resorts in the US, Europe and the Caribbean.

Pine trees and farms

Although wealthy holidaymakers have traditionally flocked to the Algarve, the well-heeled are increasingly gravitating to the more untouched Comporta, which boasts quaint villages dotted among rice fields, pine trees and farms.

Renowned for its “barefoot living” ethos, the area is protected and buildings are subject to strict regulations which means it has never been overdeveloped.

On Monday it emerged that the Sussexes had renewed their lease on Frogmore Cottage before their return to the UK for this weekend’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

The couple will stay at the five-bedroom Grade II-listed house with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday, when she is expected to be introduced to her great-grandmother and namesake.

Since stepping down as senior royals in 2020, Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, have travelled back to the UK together only once, making a brief detour to see the 96-year-old Queen while on their way to the Invictus Games in The Hague in April.

Eugenie and Jack will also return for the four-day festivities, which begin with Trooping the Colour on Thursday.