It’s all a bit flash, Harry! Prince is loving VIP life...
PRINCE HARRY’S days of nipping around London in his modest Audi must feel like ancient history now he’s making full use of the flashy opportunities up for grabs in California.
I gather Harry has gone full LAlifestyle by making use of an ultra-exclusive and lavish private airport service called The Private Suite. It sent a luxury gas-guzzling Chevrolet SUV to whisk him away when he landed at LAX from London earlier this month.
The PS service, which has been described as ‘the most VIP way through the airport’, is one step up from first class and one step down from using a private jet.
Members, who sign up for $4,500 (£3,250) a year and then pay another $3,450 per trip, are invited to exit the plane on their own private stairs before any other passenger, then are loaded into the back of their own SUV and driven to a private terminal where they get to collect their luggage and go through passport control in splendid isolation.
The PS website describes itself as ‘a private airport experience’ and says: ‘PS reimagines the airport experience for the seasoned and discerning traveller.’
It is run by Gavin de Becker, who has been widely reported as running Harry and Meghan’s security at their home in Montecito. He is known as the ‘bodyguard to the stars’ and his discreet company is known to hire former staff from the Israeli secret service Mossad.
Perhaps Harry is learning that life without plodding Met Police protection officers is much more flashy – after all, PS guards have black wraparound glasses and conspicuous earpieces. But then Harry is in a whole new world now. One of my LA sources describes him as a ‘baller’ – slang for those with great wealth who don’t mind spending it.
She says he runs with a nonfamous crowd of tech billionaires. ‘He’s not in with the showbiz lot as people would expect. Rather than spending time with Adele or James Corden, Harry and Meghan are hanging with the LA rich set: owners of big companies, jet-set types with private planes.
‘He spends time in Malibu, Montecito and Beverly Hills.
‘Harry seems really relaxed being the star in the room. He’s usually the only famous person at the parties he goes to, and it seems to suit him that he’s the one everyone flocks to.’