Thanks to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell Netflix documentary, a lavish 13,600-square-ft Spanish-style mansion in Montecito, California, became the talk of the town years ago. Despite its glorious stature on the global streamer, the estate has fallen short of attracting potential buyers even after a major discount on its original price-tag.
Not to be confused with the Sussexes’ actual home in the same town, the couple never really did live at the location that briefly shot to fame.
Although the dwelling in question made waves in the Harry & Meghan docu-series premiere in 2022, it hit the market way before that. Having first been listed for $33.5 million in August 2021, the property’s listing has since been repeatedly taken on and off, according to the Realtor. Presumably to maintain its elusive air, the mansion was pulled off the market merely months before its Netflix debut in March 2022.
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle’s California home, as seen on Netflix faces series of setbacks
Located on Lilac Drive, the Montecito house faced a price cut in April 2024 shortly after it was delisted for about a year. Even as the asking price was lowered to barely under $30 million, marking a millions-worth discount on the original price, the place still sits without a new owner.
The California residence was all royal-fixated headlines could talk about after Harry and Meghan’s Netflix doc went live. “Harry and Meghan did [their Netflix show] there, and I got bombarded by every newspaper in the world,” co-listing agent Ryan Malmsten told SF Gate. “It was supposed to be hush hush, and then the Daily Mail got wind of it, and it went ballistic.”
Years after the chatter around the OTT release has quietened down, the six-bedroom home still hasn’t benefited from all the noise that surrounded it back then. Malmsten has since revealed that even though the California abode came close landing a new owner, every-other positive development has slipped out of their hands at the very last minute.
Why is the Montecito house still on the market?
Without diving deeper into the makings of the place, the streaming released offered mere glimpses of the house at the time. This house in particular stands out as an odd duck in a rather flourishing Montecito house market. Explaining the potential reasons for the same, Malmsten attributed the mansion’s failure story to buyers “wanting way less square footage.”
He pushed that customers weren’t as concerned about the money as they were about the property’s area. Calling it a “big challenge,” he said, “They’ll pay the same amount, but they want a smaller home.” The agent further shed light on several such properties that were still on the market despite similar price cuts because of their expansive square-foot figures,
Prince Harry returns to the UK
The real estate development that now shared a distant link to the self-exiled royals comes into focus as the Duke of Sussex returned to the United Kingdom for a brief visit as September 8 markedhis grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s third death anniversary. His homecoming has since sparked speculation over his potential reunion with his father, King Charles II.
Meanwhile, former royal butler Grant Harrold, whose bombshell book titled “The Royal Butler” is set to release this month, has also redirected attention to the royal family rift. Following his recent comments about how close Prince Harry and Kate Middleton were once, the insider recently told Page Six there was no coming back for the duke.
Alluding Harry’s protocol-breaking memoir “Spare,” Harrold said, “The king doesn’t trust Harry, because of what Harry has said. He worried that he would use it to his advantage. And he has.” Harrold, who was butler to King Charles between 2004 and 2011, claimed that the British royals used to be so close, but now that the relationship had been “completely destroyed,” there was no way to undo that damage.
To some extent, the former Buckingham Palace butler also tracked the rupture in Prince William and Harry’s relationship back to the “biggest change” in the younger singling’s life – Meghan. “As soon as Meghan came into his life, everything changed,” Harrold went on. “It could be that Harry had his own awakening and suddenly decided he didn’t like the organization, but the problem is that Meghan was with him when it happened.”