In 2024, the Daily Mail claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bought a home in Portugal. The report was pretty specific – they allegedly purchased a luxury villa within the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, a development/playground for the wealthy. Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank works for the same development, and Eugenie and Jack have a home there too. Back in 2024, the British media was in a tizzy because of “golden visas” and the possibility that Meghan would set up a “rival royal court” in Portugal. Honestly, I was never mad about the reports – if the story is true, then good for Harry and Meghan. Even if the story is false, it’s positive gossip for the Sussexes because it’s an admission that they’re wealthy enough to buy a £6.3 million vacation home in Europe, which blows up all of the media’s “the Sussexes are broke” wishful thinking. Well, we haven’t heard much about this alleged Portuguese villa in a while, but the Mail had something new about it recently:

It’s the swanky private members’ club that prides itself on a muted style that appears effortlessly casual, but which has, in reality, been meticulously curated. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the Duchess of Sussex – who is equally fastidious when it comes to aesthetics – has chosen Soho House’s designers to recreate the fashionable vibe of their exclusive venues in the Portuguese bolthole she and Harry bought for £6.3 million in 2023.

The pair have a long relationship with the global chain of clubs. It was in the Greek Street venue in central London where they went on their first blind date in 2016, and they often hung out at its Cotswolds retreat, Soho Farmhouse, where luxury cabins cost up to £1,200 a night.

In 2019, the couple enlisted Soho House’s former design chief, Vicky Charles, to renovate Frogmore Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace, as part of a £2.4 million makeover. That the couple used taxpayers’ money via the Sovereign Grant caused a backlash, prompting the couple to pay back the full fee.

Charles’s company – which she runs with James Corden’s wife Julia – was also said to have worked on the Cotswolds home the Sussexes inhabited while the work on Frogmore was being done. The Beckhams and George Clooney are also loyal customers. Soho House has long had its own interior design consultancy, set up for members who want to recreate the clubs’ look in their own home. And now, it seems, there will be a little bit of Soho on Portugal’s Atlantic coast.

[From The Daily Mail]

This is so… random. Right? “You know that alleged villa they bought two years ago? Well, we know who they hired as an interior designer!” I don’t even think that Meghan would do something like that – while Meghan absolutely has her own aesthetic, and clearly she likes the Soho House-vibe, I don’t think Meghan is going around, recreating that look wherever she goes. Portugal has its own vibe and energy, and I’m sure the villa’s existing aesthetic is not really “neutral/light-wood/creams-and-beige farmhouse.” Obviously, as I said, we don’t know if they even bought a villa. But if they did, I seriously doubt that Meghan is going for the Soho House vibe. Maybe Meghan will do a rustic Italian style just to make Tom Sykes cry.

Photos courtesy of Archewell, Netflix, Meghan’s Instagram and As Ever’s Instagram.