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‘I visited Prince Harry and Meghan’s neighbourhood and was met with one big issue’

Montecito, home to celebrities like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Oprah Winfrey, and Gwyneth Paltrow, may look modest at first glance but holds the title of the fifth most expensive zip code in the US.

The scenic coastal village is set to be a key feature in Meghan’s upcoming eight-part lifestyle series in March. It will see Meghan guiding viewers through baking, tablescaping, and flower arranging.

The Times journalist Katie Glass ventured to Montecito to uncover the true essence of the neighbourhood. Upon arrival, she was greeted by an “uninspiring collection of low beige bungalows” hiding a variety of shops, yet the presence of parked Tesla, Bentley, and two Porsche Cayennes hinted at the area’s affluence.

Indeed, the average property price in this “quaint” town is about $7.5 million, approximately £6 million, with some homes selling for as much as $63 million, around £50.6 million. The Sussexes’ own Montecito abode is said to have cost them about $14 million (£11.2 million).

After pulling up in the town, Katie found herself searching for a snack, ending up with a “vegan, kosher, gluten-free, non-GMO certified beetroot juice and a 100 per cent organic vegan, gluten-free, palm oil-free, soy-free, low-sodium ‘chocolate bar'” for $10 (£8).

Inside Montecito’s shops she discovered $70 (£56) wooden-handled dusters, a $19 (£15) range of jam, and $800 (£640) stone chickens sold as “garden ornaments”.

 

She commented: “Everything is exorbitantly expensive. Even the plainest home shop I find, Hudson Grace, is flogging $1,000 silver champagne buckets.”

Keen for a spot of lunch, the journalist visited Lucky’s, a restaurant Harry and Meghan are said to frequent on date nights, only to discover a steak cost around $175 (£140). Instead, she visited Tre Lune, the Italian restaurant where Meghan is said to have celebrated her 42nd birthday.

There Katie discovered mains, including the likes of filet mignon and veal chop, cost up to $65 (£52). The Ellen salad, said to be named after Ellen DeGeneres, cost $42 (£33).

Roaming around the town, she discovered Montecito’s electric bikes, which were famously used by Harry in 2022, now collecting dust because locals prefer driving Porsches. Inside the stores, she stumbled upon a façade of a log cabin masking a hardware store with rattan furniture priced in the thousands, alongside a grocery offering a “virtue-signalling feast” of items labelled as “made with goodness” or “packaged with love”.

In fashion boutiques, she found woolly jumpers with a hefty $800 (£640) price tag, prompting her to ponder if this is what Meghan refers to when talking about ‘taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it’.

Katie concluded that Montecito is “an immaculately wholesome Disney world, is where famous people go to pretend to be normal”. She ended by saying it left her “feeling sorry” for the Duke of Sussex for leaving behind a life of royalty for a “beige mecca to wellness” surrounded by oat milk and vegan lattes.

She described the town as possibly “the most boring place” she had ever visited.

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