The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left Montecito for the UK in late August. It felt sudden, and the shock has not worn off. We learned very quickly that Prince Harry and Meghan brought their dogs to the UK, but they left their rescue chickens back in California, with someone on site (hopefully) to look after the hens. We also heard that their Montecito neighbors are really worried about the stressed-out koi on the property. There’s been a lot of speculation that Harry and Meghan might sell their mansion and/or lease it out. Well, Page Six’s sources are saying that’s not in the cards. For now.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aren’t severing their California ties just yet. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex currently have no plans to open the doors of their $14.5 million Montecito, California mansion to new residents after returning to the UK last month, a source told Page Six on Tuesday.
“No one is moving in,” the insider said. “There are folks still maintaining the property.”
The development comes amid ongoing speculation the non-working royals could either sell or rent out the 18,000-square-foot estate they purchased in 2020, as they have since set up shop outside of London in the Cotswolds area.
It’s not hard to understand why Harry and Markle would want to hold onto the nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom home — it has a tennis court, tea house, pool, children’s cottage, rose gardens and a two-bedroom guest residence. The mansion is also private and gated, which was a major selling point at the time of their purchase.
Harry and Markle have been in the UK since late August, with an insider previously telling Page Six that King Charles III’s health was the main reason they decided to move the whole family, including Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5. The transition hasn’t gone off without a hitch — Harry and Markle pulled their kids from their first school just two days into the term due to commute issues with their security team, and the actress’ personal phone number was leaked in a WhatsApp group chat with parents.
Harry has since resumed public appearances, including a charity event for the Invictus Games on Sept. 25, where he said their children are “happy” with their new school, while adding, “It’s been great to be back on British soil.”
A source previously told The Post there were rumblings Prince Harry and Markle would sell the pad after relocating, with $600,000 in mortgage payments and taxes being a major factor behind the potential decision. That could still be the case down the road, but according to the most recent source, it’s not happening for now.
So, basically what we already knew and what the Sussexs already said back in August, which is that they were keeping the Montecito mansion and they would spend school holidays back in California. If that’s true, that means the family will be back in California in mid-October, because that’s the British “half-term,” and I believe the kids will have about one week off, maybe more. My theory? No matter what, Meghan will return to Montecito by next summer, no matter what. Like, that’s her home. I hope Harry and the kids return with her when this Trauma Blender adventure is over.
Photos courtesy of Meghan’s Instagram, As Ever’s Instagram.
This touches on a part of all this I usually don’t care about and don’t really have any feelings about, specifically the wealth of the Sussexes. To me, I don’t need them to be insanely crazy rich to think they have “succeeded”. I don’t need Meghan to be the next Oprah or Martha mogul and don’t really think there’s any indication she wants to do something like that. BUT. With this update *and* the Portugal vacation home, well goodness, Harry and Megs must really be doing quite well. Even maintaining those mortgage payments without renter offset for 6 months is a BIG chunk of change. Tbh, it suggests they’ve been MUCH more successful than I had realized. Good for them!
Why do people assume they have mortgage payments?!
Can you imagine the relief of returning to Montecito after being in England? (Yes, I’m projecting here, because England to me was a dreary and claustrophic place. But still …)
There HAS to be some reason to move back to that Dickensian hell-hole other than nostalgia! Ye Olde England disappeared forever around 1914…. Now it rivals some of the worst aging cities in the US in terms of poverty and decay. California is full of lovely sudsy craft beers, Harry!
Sorry doesn’t LA have a full on shanty town from the sheer number of homeless people they’ve failed to house.
Yes, the USA has more rich people than the UK but its levels of poverty also far in a way outstrip the UK. Life may be tough here for some but we have a much stronger safety net than Americans in terms of welfare. We also don’t have guns which is why our violent crime rate is lower, so its a lot physically safer as well.
Holly, I get what you’re saying but you can’t deny that the weather is much better in Montecito … and England, especially post-Brexit, is so insular.
I found it claustrophic when I lived there … I can’t imagine what it’s like now that it’s not even part of the EU.
Oh nobody’s going to argue about the weather. But I would strongly disagree about insularity.
Most countries are only concerned with themselves and I tend to find that the more powerful a country is a more insular it is. This isn’t because smaller countries are more open, curious or accepting, it’s because they have to care about what bigger countries do.
The most insular countries I’ve been to have been the USA and China, because they are so powerful they don’t have to care about anywhere else. The UK used to be like this but now we have to care about at least the USA, if not also China and the EU. For instance the British press has wall to wall mainstream coverage of American elections while the British elections (like all foreign elections) were treated as incidental bits of foreign news by the American media.
The fact is almost all Brits could name the last five US presidents, while I suspect most Americans couldn’t name the last five UK prime ministers without resorting to Google.
Why would Americans need to know the names of British prime ministers? Sorry to say, but they’re inconsequential … small fish in a small pond that has an exaggerated sense of its own importance.
I mean they must like it or why move back?
I saw plenty of homeless in the UK. Parks full of people in tents. UK homeless is over 300,000. California homeless is 170,000. California economy 4th in the world. UK economy way behind California. Also California has universal healthcare as do other blue states.The reason we have homeless is because mentally ill people cannot be institutionalized involuntarily. The US has 50 states and 350 million people. Each state has its own laws. Generalizing about the US makes no sense. Blue states have governmenntal services and gun laws. Red states do not. They will be returning to California not Alabama. The Montecito property has at least doubled in price since they bought it. All California property has doubled in value in the last 6 to 8 years. So the equity in their Montecito home is $15 to 25 million. Nobody is selling California property.
Holly, yes there is a lot of poverty and there are too many unhoused people in the United States, particularly in major metropolitan cities. But please be aware that the location of the Sussex home is in Montecito, California, which is around 145 kilometers/over 90 miles—a 2-hour drive, from Los Angeles. There are no “shanty towns” in Montecito.
@Felicity beat me to it; how many times do people need to be told that Montecito is not in LA?
And this country has housing issues in cities at least partially because oligarchs have been allowed to buy properties they don’t live in at insanely high prices, so tons of residents (the people who would actually patronize the local businesses) have been priced out.
The duchess is doing an incredibly selfless thing for her husband, living there- with all the evil vibes around them.
Her life and the lives of her children are in danger in the uk,
I will be glad when they return to the us.
Even though the us is falling into white supremacist Nazi dystopia.
Maybe selfless, or maybe it’s Harry’s turn now. Most of the activity for the past few years has come from Meghan – WLM and As Ever – to the point where the tabloids were all about how Meghan is the breadwinner and Harry is a kept man. So, maybe now it’s time for the family’s energy to turn to Harry and his projects. Everybody has a season.
I hope we find out the real reason when Harry eventually drops those 400 pages that didn’t make it into Spare. The sooner the better. 🙃
The Sussexes are independently wealthy without having to do speaking events and brand deals they consider beneath them…. The rota (and kp) want ’em broke and desperate soooo bad. Can you imagine the tabloid mocking they would receive for being broke if they rented out their CA mansion? They have a quick escape plan if things goes sideways in England and a familiar home to go to when school is on break. Didn’t a tabloid recently admit that Harry could pull million dollar appearance fees for speaking engagements alone? It is time for the rota to stop embiggening the wails while implying the Sussexes are poors…. The Sussexes have earned their money and are not tax dodging, tax payer exploiting parasites.
I already said this in another post, but it’s possible that the Sussexes are living completely off of their investments. Considering the people they know, I’m sure they’ve invested well. Back in 2020, so their money has had time to grow.
And sometimes people prefer to keep paying a mortgage because the interest rate is a lot lower than other costs.
I DEEPLY dislike the constant repetition of “Prince Harry and Markle”.
Me too, it’s so disrespectful.
The idea that they would just abandon the hens and the koi fish with no one to care for them is just ludicrous to me. I’m sure the koi are not stressed.
LOL! People here are probably more stressed 😥 than the koi.
I mean OBVIOUSLY someone is on site taking care of the house, grounds and animals. To assume otherwise is just asinine.
I know Meghan has said she wants the kids to have an opportunity to use their prince/princess titles/be royal if they want.
I think this entire move is for them. They are royal by birth and she and Harry both want them to have that royal/royal adjacent English childhood.
If you look at it from that lens, it makes a lot more sense. Think about two people who grew up in two different countries who get married and have kids. Or even children of immigrants. It’s not unusual to have the kids spend some of their upbringing growing up in one of the other countries that their parent is from. They’re dual nationals, dual citizens, and both royal and non-royal at the same time.
Totally agree. And there are cultural differences, language differences and idioms that are more easily absorbed by children. As adults they will be able to be comfortable in either environment.
This. 💯
Not sure if you were joking about that last part but I’m pretty confident Meghan will not be returning to Montecito without her husband and children. Home is where her heart (her family) resides.
Exactly. I simply cannot see any scenario where Meghan leaves her children, or her husband for that matter, behind and returns to the US alone.
Watch, Meghan might fly back solo for a few days for meetings or to see her mom, and the headlines will be all about how they’re having marital problems. They can’t win no matter what, so I’m glad they just do whatever they want and seem to tune out the BS.
This isn’t new information. I don’t get why people keep acting like the move is permanent when Harry and Meghan said it was temporary. I’m not sure they will go back for midterms if it’s just a week. That’s a lot of travel for young kids. Especially when adjusting to such a large time change.
I mean they said this a month ago. Why are they still harassing them about a house that they own?
But they said this when it was announced that they were moving to the UK. So is Page Six just looking for additional clicks? I don’t believe they will go back to the US in October. I won’t be another time for the children to get over the jet lag as they will only get 4 or 5 days off. It’s makes more sense for them to back for Christmas.
What do you mean no matter what?! She is returning to California in the summer next year… we don’t know that and please stop stressing! They only been in the UK for 2mins and teething problems are to be expected