It’s not a palace, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle certainly live in a palatial California home — and now, a published report gives readers a look inside.
In an interview published Monday in The Cutthe 41-year-old actress and Duchess of Sussex details how the 18,000-square-foot residence in star-studded Montecito — which also counts Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres as residents — makes her “feel free” and is “calm and healing.”
The pair bought the nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom estate for a cool $14.65 million in 2020 after quitting the royal family earlier that year — an estate with rose gardens, a tennis court, a tea house and a two-bedroom guest house. It’s reportedly the first home that both Prince Harry and Meghan had ever owned.
Two years after the big-bucks purchase, the property has become their home. And just like any other homeowners, the two are undertaking renovations, including fixing pipes. Both Prince Harry, 37, and Meghan share an office, where a single desk placed in front of a fireplace has “two plush club chairs placed side by side … facing into the room like thrones.”
Meanwhile, there’s also a sitting room that’s home to a grand piano gifted to the couple by actor and director Tyler Perry as a housewarming present. (Prince Harry and Meghan spent the coronavirus lockdown in 2020 living in Perry’s multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills mansion.) That space also aptly includes cozy chairs, as well as rosewater candles from Soho House whose founder, Nick Jones, is a friend of Meghan’s. (It’s said that Prince Harry and Meghan were set up on a blind date at a Soho House in London.)
“The Montecito house is the kind of big that starts you into remembering that unimaginable wealth is actually someone’s daily reality,” according to the article’s writer, Allison P. Davis.
Still, in the article, Meghan revealed that she and Prince Harry initially avoided visiting this home before buying it. The two didn’t have jobs at the time (they’ve since scored lucrative Spotify and Netflix deals) and being able to afford it didn’t seem possible. Still, they eventually toured it — the outside only — and fell head over heels. The exterior features additionally include a chicken coop, a pool and a pool house, and even two palm trees joined together at the bottom that Prince Harry said reminds him of himself and Meghan — telling the broker they were interested.
“We did everything we could to get this house,” Meghan told the outlet. “Because you walk in and go… Joy. And exhale. And calm. It’s healing. You feel free.”
Previous reports have indicated that the home also has an elevator, a chef’s kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a billiards room with a wet bar, a gym, a wine cellar and a spa with a massage room.
The Cut story comes at a time amid reports that the couple likely won’t visit the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland during a trip to the United Kingdom next week, according to the Daily Mail, with a royal expert saying the highly publicized “family rift is getting worse, not better.” Increased tensions include concerns over what Prince Harry will publish in an impending biography.