Inside Harry’s £14m LA mansion
It’s certainly not Frogmore!
THEY’VE left behind their home on a royal estate, but harry and meghan’s new surroundings are even more palatial, it would seem.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who celebrated their second wedding anniversary yesterday, are living in a £14.5million Beverly hills mansion after stepping back from public duties.
Photographs shared on social media by its owner offer a glimpse of the luxurious interior – though the style may not be to everyone’s taste. The home, with eight bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and views over Los Angeles, is on 22 acres in an exclusive guarded community.
It is owned by hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry, who has posted several pictures of it on Instagram over the past seven years.
The mansion is certainly a step up from Frogmore Cottage, the five-bedroom home harry and meghan still have on the Queen’s windsor estate. That house, described as ‘cosy rather than grand’ was built from five staff properties, some said to have been in a poor condition, using £2.4million of taxpayers’ money which the couple are gradually repaying.
They also dug into their own pockets for the fixtures and fittings.
mr Perry’s photographs show the LA mansion has a Romanstyle sunken whirlpool bath, lounge with high ceilings and a spacious kitchen – plus a chic
white and grey nursery designed for his son Aman, now five. There is also a wood-panelled study – with ornate fireplace and huge desk – which Harry and Meghan could use a home office. A similar wood-panelled backdrop could be seen behind the couple as they took part in a Zoom video conference with mental health workers last week. It is not known whether Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, are renting the property or staying as guests of Mr Perry, whom they are believed to know through their mutual friend, TV host Oprah Winfrey. Mr Perry has a main home in Atlanta and another property in the Hollywood Hills.
Ordered to pay his ex-wife a £60 million divorce settlement in a High Court ruling made public only last week, businessman Bhanu Choudhrie is putting his depleted bank account behind him in splendid style.
The 41-year-old son of billionaire Sudhir Choudhrie has, I can disclose, embarked on a fresh romantic adventure with Tamara ralph (below), co-founder of London fashion house ralph & russo and designer of the transparent £55,950 dress which Meghan Markle wore for her engagement photographs.
‘Bhanu was in the front row when Tamara was over in France for Paris Fashion Week,’ a friend tells me, explaining that the couple’s relationship began to flourish before lockdown was imposed.
A spokesman for Choudhrie declines to comment. Tamara, 38, who until two years ago was routinely called the fiancee of business partner Michael russo, also remains silent.
But it is surely a welcome development in both their lives — especially Bhanu’s, perhaps. He and ex-wife Simrin appeared to have it all, living with their son in a sumptuous, six-storey, £20 million house in the same Belgravia square as Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber.
When Simrin appeared on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire, one critic remarked that she was ‘so obscenely rich’ she made ‘other millionaires look like hobos’. Later, however, Bhanu and his father, who have donated £1.6million to the Lib dems, were questioned by the Serious Fraud Office in a probe into bribes allegedly paid by rolls-royce in relation to a defence contract in India. Neither father nor son was charged. But Bhanu later took legal action intended to prevent Simrin from disclosing ‘pillow talk’ business information — a case that was struck out after her lawyers offered assurances she would not pass on the information. Tamara will surely inspire him only to murmur sweet nothings. One fashionista swooned at her ‘crepe de chine pussy-bow blouse’, as well as her ‘Milky Way of diamonds’. Perhaps Bhanu will slip her another?