It is 18 months since Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his actress wife, Meghan Markle, bought a nine-bedroom, 16-bath Riven Rock home on seven-and-a-half acres in our rarefied enclave for $14.65 million.
Having covered the British Royal Family for 45 years during my colorful career, including the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail in London, as well as ABC Network News, I found myself somewhat ironically living just a tiara’s toss or two from the tony twosome’s new home with their son, Archie, and now seven-month-old daughter, Lilibet, named in honor of Britain’s longest reigning monarch’s childhood nickname.
I was bombarded with calls on the acquisition appearing on all three major TV networks, CNN, and Fox News, as well as doing interviews with many of the world’s top publications, including the London Daily Mail, my former employer, France’s Le Figaro and Germany’s Der Spiegel.
Even after 1,000 years, the Royal Family, now known as the Windsors since World War II, still fascinates.
The move by Prince William’s younger brother to America has drawn comparisons with the late Duke of Windsor, briefly King Edward VIII, who gave up his throne to marry “the woman he loved,” American divorcee Wallis Simpson from Baltimore.
Harry was undoubtedly the golden boy of Buckingham Palace, enormously popular in Britain, having served two tours of service with the British Army in Afghanistan, and immersing himself doing good deeds.
But all that ended when he gave up royal duties much to the disappointment of the Queen, who will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee next summer, the same time Harry is due to deliver a tell-all tome for Penguin-Random House under a contract reportedly worth an astounding $20 million.
Quite what he’ll serve up for that figure at such a relatively young age is anyone’s guess.
During their time in our Eden by the Beach the dynamic duo has rarely been seen, other than dining at Lucky’s with music man David Foster and, last year, buying a Christmas tree at a pop-up site at La Cumbre Plaza, instead choosing to stay hunkered down with their young children and security team in Montecito.
But now, as more and more people sensibly get vaccinated against the deadly COVID disease, both of them seem to be going more public, with Harry seen walking their black Labrador rescue, Pula, on Miramar Beach, and pedaling his bike, with his minders in a black Range River closely behind.
I’m told His Royal Highness, who memorably drove an electric-powered E-type Jaguar from Windsor Castle after his wedding to the Frogmore House reception, was absolutely fascinated by the 27-foot-long Oscar Meyer weinermobile when it visited Montecito in October and even asked to drive it. Talk about hot dog!
More recently the couple donated money towards the first ever Montecito Holiday Car Parade and earlier this month Meghan was spotted fashionably attired in a Massimo Dutti wool coat and Tamara Mellon boots wearing sunglasses and a mask, discreetly shopping accompanied by a bodyguard upstairs at Pierre Lafond in the Upper Village. She’s also been spotted at the children’s clothing store Poppy and the home furnishings shop, Hudson Grace, at the Montecito Country Mart.
Harry and Meghan are said to be staying here for Christmas and New Year while his brother the Duke of Cambridge, 39, and wife, Catherine, are scheduled to be meeting with other members of the Royal Family at Sandringham in Norfolk, the sprawling stately pile built for the future King Edward VII, Queen Victoria’s son in 1862.
The formerly close relationship between the two brothers is now rumored to be at a breaking point after Harry and Meghan’s incendiary interview with fellow Montecito neighbor Oprah Winfrey earlier this year and they barely said a single word to each other when they attended their grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral at Windsor in April — which I covered for Fox News — and the unveiling of a new statue to their mother, Princess Diana, at Kensington Palace, where they spent their childhoods, in July.
Hopefully 2022 will mend the considerable fracture between the future King William V and Harry, and we’ll continue to see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex get more involved in the neighborhood they have chosen to make their family home.
— Richard Mineards
www.montecitojournal.net
It is 18 months since Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his actress wife, Meghan Markle, bought a nine-bedroom, 16-bath Riven Rock home on seven-and-a-half acres in our rarefied enclave for $14.65 million.
Thank you @CarryOn2020 for your #26 nickname, His Actress Wife, from the above article. Here is The List #26 Ribbon with my apologies for missing it when I posted the last group of nicknames. 
www.thesun.co.uk
