Neighbours say Sussexes’ star on the wane in US

An increase in public appearances after a period lying low suggests Harry and Meghan are on manoeuvres.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Picture: Getty Images

At Pierre Lafond Market in Montecito, a freshly baked bagel with smoked salmon will set you back $17. The cafe and deli, said by staff to be a favourite spot for the Duchess of Sussex to pick up pastries and desserts, is a mainstay of the Californian celebrity enclave 90 minutes’ drive from Los Angeles.

The upmarket eatery hints at Meghan’s easy life among the stars. She enjoys shopping trips to the Wendy Foster boutique, where stud gold earrings sell for $750 a pair, and dinner with Harry, 39, at the Italian restaurant Tre Lune, where Kevin Costner and the singer Kenny Loggins are said to be patrons.

Montecito, where their $14m home is nestled in the hills overlooking the Pacific, could hardly be further from the storm unfolding in the UK as the names were revealed of the royals said by Meghan, 42, to have speculated about the skin colour of her unborn child.

The publishers of Endgame, Omid Scobie’s gossip-filled expose of five years of royal feuds, mistakenly revealed via a Dutch translation of the book that the King and the Princess of Wales were the two mystery Windsors who had allegedly asked about baby Archie’s skin colour while Meghan was pregnant.

For Meghan’s detractors, the revelation was the fruit of seeds sown in the interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, where the allegation was first made. But sources close to the duchess claimed that she “never wanted them to be publicly identified” and strongly denied being Scobie’s informant.

On Thursday night Scobie swore “on my life, on my family’s life” that the names were released by mistake. His publishers have scrambled to recall misprinted copies.

While Scobie’s book is making waves internationally, it appears to have barely registered in Montecito. Endgame is not being stocked in Montecito’s main bookstore, according to the owner, while residents approached by The Times had nothing to say about the new release.

Mary Sheldon, the manager of Tecolote Book Shop, said she was not stocking Endgame and there had been no requests for it from locals. “I do not know how everybody else feels about it, but in the bookstore community they do not seem to care,” said Sheldon, 80. “Because around here there are people that are very famous.”

The latest royal drama, it seems, has passed the Sussexes’ home town by. Instead, conversation had turned to Meghan’s latest step in her Hollywood career.

Echoing reports from TMZ, the showbiz website, which cited “sources with direct knowledge”, locals suggested the duke and duchess may be looking to move from their mansion, which features a tennis court, pool, rose gardens and a large chicken coop.

“I heard they’re moving to LA,” said Michaela Gaston Morgan, a voiceover actor and a member of the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club, where Harry plays polo. “I think they’re looking for real estate, if they haven’t already found it.”

Morgan has no interest in reading Endgame and is not surprised that others in Montecito appear to share her apathy.

“We’re surrounded by celebrities here,” she said, adding that she “adored” the late Queen and was disappointed by Harry and Meghan’s behaviour.

A move to LA would allow the couple to meet executives more easily as they work on television and film projects for their $100m deal with Netflix.

An increase in public appearances after a period lying low suggests the royal duo are on manoeuvres. Meghan travelled to San Diego with Harry to mark Remembrance Day, then walked down the red carpet alongside Margot Robbie and Carey Mulligan for Variety’s Power of Women gala. Last month the couple attended an ice hockey game in Vancouver, where the duke did the ceremonial puck drop. Archewell, their production company, is adapting the romance novel Meet Me at the Lake as a film for Netflix. At the Variety event Meghan said there were “so many exciting things” in the pipeline.

While her harshest critics argue that Meghan’s reputation has been irretrievably tarnished, many experts do not agree.

“She can definitely take another bite out of the celebrity apple,” said Evan Nierman, the founder and chief executive of the crisis PR firm Red Banyan.

The events will have been carefully choreographed, according to Nierman, in particular the Variety event, which he described as a sort of relaunch for Meghan.

But a return to the epicentre of the celebrity world after months of relative quiet could spark criticism, the couple having spent years complaining about intrusions into their private lives.

Polling in America suggests that Meghan’s popularity has dipped. A YouGov survey taken between July and September found that she had a net approval rating of ten, a drop from 17 over the previous three-month period.

“I’m fed up with this couple that gets on any talk show that will let them come on to tell us how much they want to preserve their privacy,” said Catherine Compere, a 68-year-old financial manager from Montecito. “If you want to preserve your privacy then don’t go on talk shows. Just act like normal human beings.”

The Times