Harry, Meghan find forever home
After moving five times in little more than a year, Prince Harry, Meghan and their son, Archie, may finally found a place to put down roots: A “family home” in the super-exclusive Santa Barbara County town of Montecito, where they will have plenty of celebrity neighbors, including good friends Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
TMZ reported that the couple purchased a home in the coastal enclave for around $10 million, and Page Six said they settled into the house in July. A source also emphasized to Page Six that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bought the home “themselves” and are not “houseguests of Oprah or anyone else.”
“This is where they want to continue their lives after leaving the UK,” the source said. “This is the first home either of them has ever owned.” The houseguest comment points to the fact that Harry and Meghan have led something of a vagabond existence since leaving the U.K. in November and stepping away from being working members of the royal family.
They lived for several months in Canada, as houseguests of some mysterious person who owned an $18 million estate on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In late March, just as shelter-in-place was ordered in California, Harry and Meghan arrived in Los Angeles, where they became guests of Winfrey’s friend, Tyler Perry, who let them stay in a mansion he owns in Beverly Hills.
And, yes, it appears that Harry and Meghan are firsttime homeowners. Harry grew up living in palaces owned by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, or his father, Prince Charles. Meanwhile, when Meghan was working in television, she rented a home in Los Angeles with Trevor Engelson, her husband from 2011 to 2013.
But she spent most of her time in a rental house in Toronto, where she filmed “Suits” and where she privately entertained Harry after they started dating in 2016. After Harry and Meghan married in May 2018, they settled into a three-bedroom cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London, where they were neighbors with Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.