Royals ‘found freedom’ on secret luxury holidays paid for by friends
DESPITE feeling “trapped” by the Royal family and besieged by the paparazzi, Harry and Meghan managed to “find freedom” on a series of luxury holidays, undetected by the press.
According to the biography by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, Finding Freedom, the Duke and Du chess enjoyed secret trips to countries includingbotswana, norway and turkey–with private jets and accommodation sometimes laid on by friends.
The royal couple holidayed together for the first time at Botswana’s exclusive Meno A Kwena resort in August 2016 – but returned to the £1,500-anight safari park on the edge of Makgadikgadi Pans National Park a year later for Meghan’s 36th birthday.
The Prince is thought to have “unofficially” proposed at the haven in the Okavango Delta, where each deluxe “tent” boasts a king-size teak bed and an en-suite bathroom featuring “solar powered hot water on tap, pressurised showers and Egyptian cotton towels”.
Earlier that summer, the couple enjoyed a five-night stay in Turkey, “completely undetected”, overlooking the Yalikavak Bay, according to the book.
On another occasion, Harry’s multimillionaire friend Arthur Landon lent them his LA home for the week – described as a “bohemian-style West Hollywood spread with a pool and Sunset boulevard”.
A 2017 New Year trip to the Arctic
Circle was organised by Inge Solheim, a Norwegian adventure guide befriended by Harry during the Walk with the Wounded trek in 2011.
Inge arranged a cabin for the couple in Tromsø, where they “enjoyed seven days of dog sledding, whale watching, dining on local delicacies and snuggling to watch as the Aurora Borealis lit up the skies”.
Celebrity friends George and Amal Clooney, who were invited to the couple’s wedding in May 2018, also helped them out with a free holiday to their villa in Lake Como three months later.
The biography claims the Hollywood star and his human rights lawyer wife lent the royal couple their private jet to fly to Villa Oleandra in August 2018. The Clooneys also flew the Duchess back from her New York babyshower the following February on the private plane – after her friend, the tennis star Serena Williams, had reserved the penthouse at Manhattan’s exclusive Mark hotel for the star-studded party.
After Sir Elton John performed free at their wedding reception at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, the couple reportedly flew to their honeymoon on a “private jet loaned by a friend”.
Sir Elton then defended the couple in the face of criticism for reportedly taking four private jet journeys in 11 days in the summer of 2019, revealing he had paid for their flight to his holiday home in Nice.
The Duke and Duchess travelled there after spending time in “an upscale gated complex” on the Spanish island of Ibiza with their son Archie, which came after Harry had been flown to an “exclusive Sicilian seaside resort” for a three-day Google camp – paid for by the technology giant.
The couple are currently living “rent free” in the £14 million Beverly Hills mansion of media mogul Tyler Perry, an eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom Tuscan-style villa that sits on 22 acres.