Whatever Meghan Markle wants she gets…but she and Prince Harry must remember they need our support to survive

TWO and a half million pounds to do up a five-bedroom cottage seems a hell of a lot of money to me when you could knock it down and build two for the same money.

But it doesn’t bother Harry or Meghan — because they aren’t paying.

It really does seem that whatever Meghan wants, Meghan gets, as Harry was reported to have said just before their wedding.

And it appears I’m not alone in thinking this. In a poll on yesterday’s Good Morning Britain, a staggering 87 per cent said “No” when asked “Should the taxpayer pay £2.4million for the redevelopment of Harry and Meghan’s official residence?”

And the spending isn’t over yet. The exterior will cost another half a million.

That’s outrageously expensive when many people of their age are desperate to get a foot on the housing ladder and have been on council waiting lists for years with no prospect of getting decent accommodation. How must it make them feel?

IT'S OBSCENE

More than half of this outlay could have been saved if they’d decided to stay at Kensington Palace, in the grand apartment the Duke of Gloucester offered them. The roof needs doing but that is only projected to cost £1.4million.

But that would have placed them next door to the Cambridges, who, as we are constantly told, Harry and Meghan have all but fallen out with.

Just last week the Sussexes confirmed that they would be splitting from the Royal Foundation, the charity they share with William and Kate, to set up their own endeavour.

Compare their spendthrift ways with those of the thrifty Queen and her penchant for using Tupperware and a two-bar electric fire.

I don’t expect the Royal Family to ride around on bicycles, but this amount on a renovation is obscene.

Kensington Palace was good enough and big enough for Charles and Diana and their two boys.

Harry was happy living next door to his brother and Kate and spent hours entertaining their children, but it seems to me Kensington Palace wasn’t good enough for Meghan.

THEY NEED OUR SUPPORT

When Britain is coming out of years of austerity, how can she lavish £50,000 on a dress for an engagement picture then fly to New York for a baby shower costing hundreds of thousands of pounds?

We know, in general, Americans think it is OK to flaunt their wealth, but here in Britain we are much more understated — and expect our royals to be the same.

For the royals to survive, they have to have the support of the public.

In the three years since Harry met Meghan, he has changed so much.

From being the most popular member of the Royal Family as far as Sun readers are concerned, he has steadily gone down the approval ladder.

There was no excuse for the cock-ups over the birth of their son Archie Harrison.

To be told at lunchtime that Meghan had gone into labour and to learn later the baby was almost eight hours old by then was grossly misleading.

Americans think it is OK to flaunt their wealth, but here in Britain we are much more understated — and expect our royals to be the same.

Archie is now almost two months old and we still don’t know what he looks like — apart from a rushed photo opportunity THREE DAYS after the birth and a few black and white shots on Instagram.

By refusing to share their great event, I feel they are deliberately diminishing the public’s enjoyment of the arrival of another great-grandson for the Queen.

When I learned only one Press photographer was to photograph Archie, I decided to cover the Prince of Wales’s tour of Germany.

I was the only photographer on the Prince’s plane and when I was asked by a member of his team why I was not covering the birth of Harry’s baby, I replied: “Because I want to be with members of the Royal Family who want me to photograph them, not with Harry and Meghan who clearly don’t.”

SEEMED TO SULK

I keep asking myself, why has Harry become so controlling?

I have photographed him all his life and he has never been like this before. He’s always been full of joy and enthusiastic about all he did.

The old Harry is no longer there, and he seems to have forgotten that being a royal is a two-way street.

I couldn’t believe Meghan did not turn up to greet the President of the United States, who had been invited by the Queen to a state visit.

No one disagrees more with Donald Trump’s views on climate change than Prince Charles, but he put his personal feelings aside and supported the Queen, and also invited the President and First Lady to tea at Clarence House.

Harry seemed to sulk all the time he was with the Trumps and it was Meghan’s duty as an American member of our Royal Family to support the Queen and welcome her President.

Harry and Meghan believe they have a role on the world stage — and with their A-list friends they probably do — but if they aren’t careful they will end up like Prince Andrew, who works tirelessly but nobody cares.

And if reports are true, they are going to spend a lot of their time in Africa.

I have to pay tribute to Harry for his military service, founding the Invictus Games for injured servicemen and women and his work in Britain and overseas with under- privileged children.

It would be great if Harry and Meghan had a clear-the-air reception for the royal press corps and tell us what’s really been going on.

But I don’t suppose they will — because it’s not what Meghan wants.

• Arthur Edwards is The Sun's royal photographer.

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