Inside the $7k-a-night cottage where Prince Harry filmed his explosive Anderson Cooper interview:

On Sunday night, Prince Harry unleashed fresh bombshells on the Royal Family when he sat down with CBS’ Anderson Cooper for a one-hour television special promoting his new memoir Spare. 

Rather than filming the tell-all interview at his and Meghan Markle’s $14m Montecito mansion, the Duke instead made the one-hour journey to the exclusive San Ysidro Ranch in California.

But while ordinary rooms at the Hollywood hideout start from $2,595 per night, the red carpet was rolled out for the royal father-of-two – who made himself at home in the complex’s lavish Churchill Cottage.

The wartime PM stayed at the Montecito resort for several months in 1912 and JFK also enjoyed multiple vacations at the complex with his wife Jackie Kennedy too.

A glimpse inside Churchill Cottage – which costs $7k-a-night to rent – shows the lavish holiday home has been kitted out with chic rustic interiors, including antique-looking chairs and tables which are offset by the ornate chandeliers  

Prince Harry and Anderson filmed their interview in the spacious, open-plan living room, where a brick fireplace takes centre stage.

The Duke of Sussex was placed in front of a floor-to-ceiling bookcase – but out of the shot, there is a quaint seating area in one of the bay windows.

Meanwhile, a cosy rug takes up most of the floor and the fireplace is framed by a red printed sofa and mahogany coffee table.

In his interview with Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry boldly claimed that he ‘never intended to hurt his family’ with the brutal contents of his bombshell memoir. The Duke of Sussex pictured in front of the cottage’s floor-to-ceiling bookshelves

The Montecito ranch – where Prince Harry sat down with ITV’s Tom Bradby and CBS News’ Anderson Cooper ahead of his explosive book Spare – features stunning interiors, including ornate chandeliers, four poster beds, and a lush garden

The plush Churchill Cottage, where guests can stay for $7,000 a night- once hosted Winston Churchill 

Plush curtains, which were gold and intricately embroidered with burgundy and green floral patterns, dress the French doors. 

In keeping with the rustic feel of the property, there is a wooden four-poster bed in the next room and the walls have been lined with floral wallpaper. Both the bedroom and living room boast their own flat-screen TVs.

Opposite the bed, there is a vintage dressing table and what appears to be an antique writing desk next to the entrance of the bathroom. 

Adding an extra touch of luxury, the bathroom boasts a clawfoot bath-tub next to a window overlooking the gardens along with an extra shower.

As well the regal atmosphere created by the opulent greenery, there are spots to relax all around – from a small pool to a modern shower all around

The lush gardens surrounding the ranch are the star of the show. An assortment of trees, flowers and shrubs make for a magical setting

Prince Harry and Anderson Cooper pictured strolling around the Churchill Cottage gardens during his one-hour TV special, which aired on SUnday

But it’s the lush gardens surrounding the ranch which are the real star of the show. 

As well the regal atmosphere created by the opulent greenery, there are spots to relax all around – from a small pool to a modern waterfall shower.

During the interview, Harry and Anderson made a point to walk around the gardens – which have several benches placed next to the luscious flowerbeds.

The ranch has a fascinating history; in the 19th Century it was home to Franciscan monks, but it has been a hotel since the Thirties.

There are 38 cottages surrounding a large, well-tended garden – which boasts olive and lavender trees – with each property coming equipped with a fireplace, private patio and extras such as heated bathroom floors.

The 1,450 square-foot ranch is filled with antiques and Persian rugs, and features patio seating leading onto the lush green garden, which was captured by Flickr user Paul Tillman.

Wooden interiors create an aesthetic that feels authentic to California, despite being a short drive away from its busiest, bustling city

The spacious ensuite bathroom boasts a freestanding bath overlooking the gardens and an enormous shower area

Photos inside the property show off just why it’s been such a hit with society’s best and brightest

The Express reports each cottage also contains a four-poster bed and an outdoor waterfall shower.

However, Churchill Cottage isn’t actually the most expensive property on the complex. 

And the most lavish cottage on the resort is its Warner Cottage, which contains a 33-foot swimming pool and costs $10,000 per night to rent. 

Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains are 17 miles of hiking trails nearby. 

The flora surrounding the property makes for a perfect romantic getaway from Los Angeles in California

The cosy interiors make the property feel both opulent and relaxed, featuring vintage rustic aesthetics

Meghan Markle filmed a clip from her Variety magazine photoshoot inside Churchill cottage last year

The hotel’s Stonehouse restaurant lures the famous to its tables in droves, with Oprah Winfrey said to be a fan.

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were married there in 1940 and John Huston wrote The African Queen in one of the cottages during a three-month stay.

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow married in the Willow Suite in 2003, while Julia Roberts and husband Danny Moder spent the first night after their wedding there.

It also where Meghan Markle posed up a storm for her Variety magazine covershoot last year. 

In Meghan’s Variety article, the San Ysidro Ranch was described as: ‘A low-key old luxury resort with simple bungalows tucked into a mountainside overlooking the Pacific coast.’

A bench in one of the garden spots makes for the perfect place to sit down and enjoy the gorgeous greenery 

Other vintage décor picks include a clawfoot bath-tub, four poster beds and rustic style furniture

As well as being photographed in the garden, Meghan sat down in the living room where she revealed her husband’s preferred restaurant in LA is fast food chain In-N-Out Burger. 

In his interview with Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry boldly claimed that he ‘never intended to hurt his family’ with the brutal contents of his bombshell memoir – despite the book, and the various TV interviews the Duke has done to promote it, containing several very damaging attacks on the royals. 

The 38-year-old father-of-two defended his decision to air his grievances about his family so publicly during the 60 Minutes interview – which aired just over an hour after Harry gave a near-identical one-on-one chat to British TV channel ITV. 

When asked by Anderson about a particularly ‘cutting’ passage in his book in which he details his brother William’s ‘alarming baldness’ and his ‘famous resemblance’ to their mother Princess Diana – which the Duke wrote was ‘fading with time, with age’ – Harry claimed he saw nothing ‘cutting’ about that passage, nor any other in the memoir. 

‘I don’t see it as cutting at all,’ Harry fired back.

Cosy carpets adorn the floors, with floral prints decorating the curtains and wallpaper. A lounge flaunts a comfortable fireplace to snuggle up by on rainy days

‘Um, you know, my brother and I love each other. I love him deeply. There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years.’

The Duke went on to insist that he ‘never intended to hurt his family’ with the publication of the book, however he claimed that he felt the need to share his story in such a public manner in order to ‘squash the idea’ that Meghan ‘was the one that destroyed’ his relationship with his brother. 

‘None of anything that I’ve written, anything I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family,’ he claimed. 

‘But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.’

Prince Harry’s suggestion that he ‘never intended’ to cause his family upset seems very much at odds with the contents of his explosive book – which was accidentally released in Spain before the weekend, days ahead of its planned January 10 publication. 

During an interview with 60 Minutes, Harry said that he had no choice but to publicly air his grievances about the royals because when he has done so privately, stories have been ‘leaked’

The memoir’s early release revealed a laundry list of damaging claims and accusations made by the Duke against his family – with Anderson himself noting in the introduction to his interview that it ‘is anything but spare in its unflattering portrayal of the royal family’.

Attacks rain down in every chapter: from accusations that his brother assaulted him in a row over Meghan to claims that William and Charles confronted Harry after Prince Philip’s funeral and were ‘looking for a fight’. 

Harry also alleges that William and Kate – his once adored sister-in-law who is now painted as cold and unfriendly – urged him to wear his infamous Nazi costume. 

The prince, who quit as a working royal and moved to California with Meghan in a quest for greater privacy, recalls in agonizing detail dozens of family arguments and intimate conversations. He also goes on to reveal his father’s medical ailments and the fact the King still carries around his favourite teddy bear.

However, according to Harry, none of this was meant to ‘hurt’ his family – with the Prince going on to claim to Anderson that that he had no choice but to hit out at the royal family in such a public manner – because it is the only ‘language that perhaps they understand’, alleging that he had tried to have conversations ‘privately’ but that ‘every time… there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife’.

He continued: ‘You know, the family motto is “never complain, never explain”, but it’s just a motto and it doesn’t really hold…’ 

When asked by Anderson whether there had been ‘a lot of complaining and a lot of explaining through leaks,’ Harry claimed: ‘Through leaks. They will feed or have a conversation with the correspondent and that correspondent will literally be spoon fed information and write the story. 

‘And at the bottom of it, they will say that they’ve reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting.’

Repeating the attacks he and Meghan made against the royals in their recent Netflix docuseries, the Duke said the couple has been ‘betrayed’ repeatedly by his family, telling Anderson: ‘When we’re being told for the last six years, “We can’t put a statement out to protect you,” but you do it for other members of the family, there comes a point where silence is betrayal.’

Taking another swipe at his family – and what he claims is the royals’ persistent ‘leaking’ of stories to the press – Harry said that he would rather speak out himself than voice his complaints about the Monarchy through ‘someone else’ or an ‘unnamed source’. 

‘So now, trying to speak a language that perhaps they understand, I will sit here and speak truth to you with the words that come out of my mouth, rather than using someone else, an unnamed source, to feed in lies or a narrative to a tabloid media that literally radicalizes its readers to then potentially cause harm to my family, my wife, my kids,’ he said.

Ironically, even as Harry was defending the bombshells included in his memoir, he was – at the same time – launching further attacks on his family, at one point describing Queen Consort Camilla as a ‘villain’ who he considered to be ‘dangerous’.

Shortly before his interview on 60 Minutes aired, the Duke launched another extraordinary attack on his family in a sit-down with British ITV journalist Tom Bradby, in which he likened the royals to ‘abusers’ and suggested the Monarchy helped to ‘trash’ his and Meghan’s reputations.

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