Back at the start of 2020 (if you can believe it) Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan announced that they were quitting the royal family and stepping back from their roles representing The Queen and monarchy.
- Almost 12 months ago, Prince Harry and Meghan announced they were leaving the royal family.
- The couple and their young son Archie quickly relocated to California, where Meghan grew up.
- In other royal news, Harry and Meghan revealed they got married in secret before their public wedding
Since then, the couple and their one-year-old son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor have taken up home in an array of places (first a secluded home in the Canadian countryside, and then an $18 million LA mansion loaned to them by Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry) before purchasing a Santa Barbara mansion in the summer.
The couple landed on a $14.65 million (or £11 million) property in Montecito, in the Santa Barbara area of California. The Duke and Duchess are reported to have moved into their Santa Barbara mansion in July, during the coronavirus pandemic, and have spent the months since making the vast estate their home.
What is Prince Harry and Meghan’s Santa Barbara mansion like?
The couple paid a hefty price tag for their Santa Barbara mansion, so it’s no surprise that they and their young family now have plenty of space to enjoy in the California sunshine. Reportedly, the home is 18,000 square feet, set on five acres of land.
Inside, Harry and Meghan's house has a huge nine bedrooms, and an even bigger 16 bathrooms, so the Sussex family has plenty of room to spread out.
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It's also said to have all of the luxury amenities you could wish for – including a library, an office, a chic, Italian-looking wine cellar, a games room, a movie theatre and a covered garage with space for five cars.
And that's not all – it also has a spa (complete with sauna) and a gym, so Harry and Meghan practically never have to leave!
Outside, the former owners made full use of the five acres of space – with an enormous outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court, a tea house (how very British) and even some lovely tiered rose gardens.
What is Montecito like?
Montecito is a small, quiet area of California, located in Santa Barbara, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
It's around an hour-and-a-half from the city centre of Los Angeles and more well-known celebrity home locations such as Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
The area is considered to be a welcome quiet, isolated and rural retreat for many stars, away from the hustle and bustle of the LA area. In fact, Harry and Meghan have many celebrity neighbours – as people like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Barrymore, and Patrick Stewart all have homes in the area.
Prince Harry and Meghan will handily also be just 10 minutes down the road from the excitement of the coastal city of Santa Barbara, which offers plenty of choice for shopping, restaurants, and schooling for Archie when he gets older.
The Duchess of Sussex was born and raised in Los Angeles, so the move there is really a return home for Meghan.
Plus, the young family will now be living just an hour or so away from Meghan's mother and Archie's grandmother, Doria Ragland, who lives in the View Park-Windsor Hills area of LA.
So could this Santa Barbara mansion be Harry and Meghan’s house forever? We reckon so!
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