Meghan Markle, Prince Harry called local villains by neighbors in ritzy California town
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reportedly are called local villains by neighbors of the ritzy California town the couple fled to after leaving their royal roles behind.
One Montecito resident, who has never met the couple but spoke to Vanity Fair, referred to the duo as the prince and "the starlet."
The neighbors of the quiet Santa Barbara area attribute many of the new annoyances to Markle and Prince Harry, including increased housing prices, busy streets and more.
The neighborhood has seen much more tourist traffic since Markle and Harry's arrival in 2020, anonymous residents told the outlet. Vanity Fair also reported that several people they spoke with noted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have become local villains.
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Markle's latest business endeavor, American Riviera Orchard, is also located in Montecito, Vanity Fair reported. According to the outlet, a book published by the Southern Pacific Company rail lines in 1898 states, "The Montecito is known as the American Riviera." However, that honor reportedly now belongs to Santa Barbara.
"It’s such a kind of hucksterism," a resident told Vanity Fair. "It’s just finding every way she can to monetize something.
"I still think they’re the most entitled, disingenuous people on the planet," the resident added. "They moved away from England to get away from the scrutiny of the press, and all they do is try and get in the press in the United States."
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment.
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Meanwhile, the couple's arrival has been praised by their celebrity neighbor, Sharon Stone.
"You know, the thing about them that is so great is they didn’t come here to live off of our community. They came here to be a part of our community," she told Access Hollywood in 2020.
"My friend said she was sitting in her car, and they bicycled across the street and waved at her while she was sitting at the red light," she recalled. "They’re a part of our community. They’ve become a giving, caring, participating part of our community. They’re not here to be like, ‘Would you like to kiss my butt?'"
Montecito has been home to a handful of celebrities, including Natalie Portman, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Adam Levine, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Keaton and Oprah.
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Despite moving to the United States five years ago after stepping back from his senior roles in royal life, Prince Harry reportedly doesn't have a social life aside from his nuclear family.
"[Meghan] was up front about the fact that Harry hadn’t made many friends yet," a source, who previously interacted with Markle professionally, told Vanity Fair.
Markle and Prince Harry threw themselves into work and landed a bombshell Netflix contract months after establishing Montecito as their home in 2020. They first released their docuseries, "Harry & Meghan," in 2022. The show earned the biggest one-day audience for any Netflix series since monitoring began in October 2022. One year later, they followed up with the "Heart of Invictus" docuseries in 2023 and produced "Polo" in 2024.
However, multiple sources described Markle and Prince Harry as having "really great ideas" for shows that never got made.
"I think Harry doesn’t know what he wants because he grew up in a fishbowl, and so he doesn’t know what real life really is," an insider, who worked on media projects with the couple, told Vanity Fair. "I think he probably wants to be left alone and be able to go kiss babies every once in a while but not have to worry about money. I don’t think he wants to be famous the way Meghan wants to be famous."
Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright contributed to this report.