If you've ever wondered what it would be like to live next to literal royalty, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's neighbors are here for you.
(And, spoiler alert: Harry and Meghan sound like pretty normal neighbors, all things considered—minus the necessarily constant presence of their security teams, at least.)
It's been more than four years since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step down from their duties as working royals and move their family across the pond to the United States. Since then, the couple and their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, have put down roots and made a home in Montecito, California—and their neighbors have started sharing some details about the family's lives in the Golden State.
Insiders say Harry is the more low-key (and less frequently spotted) of the two, but it sounds like when he is out, he's like most other dads who live in the suburbs (again, minus the security detail).
“Normally when you see him around here, he’s walking his Labrador on the beach or on his bicycle followed by his security in a Range Rover,” a neighbor told The Telegraph. “They keep themselves to themselves. I haven’t seen Harry around much.”
Other tidbits about Harry's life in California include reports that he starts is days with 30-40 minutes of meditation, works out with personal trainers, and handles the morning school run with his son and daughter. Oh, and he also sometimes does some bird-watching in his garden, which is probably the chillest way possible to shake up an already extremely chill morning routine.
As for Meghan, she's reportedly seen out and about more than Harry, and when she is, she's typically doing very normal things like shopping at the farmer's market, getting lunch with friends, or meeting up with her mahjong group.
If that doesn't seem like a lot of Sussex intel for neighbors to share, it's probably because there isn't much Sussex intel available, even after four years. Richard Mineards, a society columnist for the Montecito Journal who lives in the same community as the royal couple, explained that Harry and Meghan just aren't seen a lot in the neighborhood—even though everyone is very aware that they're there.
“It’s a very wealthy community, we have a lot of people giving a lot of money to our cultural organizations as well as charities, but we don’t see them,” he said. “We have got a lot of very rich and very famous people here, and none of them have a security retinue like the Sussexes,” he adds. “The community is waiting for them – they’re gnashing at the bit. The cachet of a Duke and Duchess!”
