Prince Harry and Meghan Markle self-exiled to the ultrawealthy enclave of Montecito in 2020. “They wave. They drive. They close the gates,” a neighbor said.
It was the world’s fastest-breaking change of address: After moving to the United States amid a painful and public break with the royal family, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, were returning to Britain.
The Telegraph, a staid British newspaper, preceded the news with the most prized of Fleet Street boasts, “Exclusive.Exclusive.”
“MEGXIT BOMBSHELL,” trumpeted The Sun, a raffish tabloid. It also claimed “WORLD EXCLUSIVE” for good measure.
But in Montecito, the sun-soaked, celebrity-studded California community where the couple have lived since 2020, word of the royal departure spread at the usual pace: leisurely.
“Want to know how much a nonstory it is up here?” asked Ann Louise Bardach, an author and journalist who lives in the region. She scrolled some local news sites. The police were searching for a bank robber. The nearby Santa Barbara Zoo had euthanized a capybara. Yet she found “not one word” about the royals’ departure, Ms. Bardach said.
“I’m not saying it’s not a big story.” But “look who the neighbors are,” she added. “Oprah.”
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