Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have gone extraordinarily great with their starter home in California, buying a $ 14.65 million estate in the heart of posh Montecito, the enclave on the coast of Santa Barbara County, famous for being home to in all Hollywood heavyweights.
The names of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not appear on grant deeds related to the property – records show the estate was quietly sold in mid-June to a mysterious trust with a deliberately opaque name, although the trust happens to be a mailing address to share with the offices of Meghan Markle’s longtime Hollywood business manager.
Public documents also revealed that the buyers secured a $ 9.5 million mortgage to get the 7.4-acre compound, which was securely tucked away on a private, gated street. Despite the unquestionably hefty pricetag, it could be argued that Meghan and Harry scored the pledge against a discount of sorts – the seller, low-profile Russian businessman Sergey Grishin, acquired the estate in 2009 for $ 25.3 million and had visited it extensively. times selling over the past decade before finally accepting a $ 10 million financial loss.
Built in 2003, the Mediterranean-style main house features a trove of beige and off-white decor, plus a library, gym, separate wet and dry saunas, a lift, arcade, games room and living room. There is also a detached guest house with two bedrooms and bathrooms; in total, the estate has nearly 19,000 square feet of living space with a total of 9 bedrooms and a total of 16 bathrooms.
Dated advertisements state that the property additionally offers a “tea house”, a “children’s house,” and exceptionally beautiful manicured grounds with ornate rose gardens, century-old olive trees, and tall Italian cypress trees that are likely to cost a small fortune to maintain. A full-size tennis court, lap pool and a particularly extensive children’s play area are among the many other outdoor facilities.
Meghan and Harry, who first moved into the state in 2020, previously lived in a fortified compound owned by Tyler Perry, whom they met through a mutual friend Oprah Winfrey.
Montecito can be reached by car for a full two hours northwest of downtown LA, but celebrities have flocked to the area in recent years – the relaxed and most paparazzi-free atmosphere of the neighborhood offers a welcome retreat from the hectic pressure from Hollywood and its surrounding environments. Residents of the current area include Gwyneth Paltrow, Ellen DeGeneres, Ariana Grande, and – perhaps most famously – Oprah Winfrey herself, whose nearly 70-acre “Promised Land” composition qualifies as one of the hottest outbuildings in Southern California.
