BREAKING NEWS: Prince Harry and Meghan have been slapped in face after latest takedown
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have only been in Britain for a matter of weeks, and their former neighbours are already speaking out, Eleanor Burleigh writes.
Six years after their “freedom flight” to the US from an oppressive monarchy and hostile press, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are back in Britain – and finding neither country to be as welcoming as they’d hoped.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex didn’t manage to endear themselves to their neighbours in the exclusive Californian enclave of Montecito during their stint abroad, if reports are to be believed.
Designer Penny Bianchi told The Sun the couple were “not popular” and suggested they had pulled Prince Archie out of school at the last minute, leaving teachers to find out about their relocation across the Atlantic with everyone else.
Harry and Meghan moved back to Britain with their children last month (Image: Getty)
The Sussexes moved to Montecito in 2020 (Image: Getty)
Former Beach Boys member Bruce Johnson, who lives near Harry and Meghan’s £23million mansion, also said “no one knows” why they left but suggested the duke returned home to “tell his brother he’s sorry for being a jerk”.
Other anonymous sources have said the duke and duchess “never became part of the community” and only wanted to “hang out” with people who were billionaires, famous or both.
Whatever the truth of these reports, the UK side of the story is better documented but no more comfortable for Harry and Meghan – so it’s got to be a slap in the face.
Their return to the UK won’t see them re-ingratiate themselves with the Royal Family, as King Charles made clear this week.
Despite protests from the Sussex camp, they will retain their “private citizen” status and not take up any royal duties.
They are said to be keeping their Montecito home, where they left their chickens, despite being based in Britain “for some time”, to let Archie and Lilibet settle into their new schools and routines.
Perhaps understandably, Meghan is reported to be feeling “very homesick” and “isolated” in Britain, less able to “go shopping or meet someone for lunch without thinking too much about it” than in the States.
It is difficult to imagine a world where a return to the US wouldn’t be considered an admission of failure, however.
Even if they did try to go back to California, it looks increasingly unlikely they’d be welcomed. More than ever, they appear firmly stuck between a rock and a hard place
