Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will forge their new lives in either Los Angeles or Toronto rather than the celebrity enclave of Vancouver Island, it was claimed today.
Following the couple’s decision to quit as senior Royals and relocate to North America, it was speculated they planned to settle in the leafy Canadian neighbourhood where they spent Christmas in a £10.7million waterfront property.
But this was rubbished today by a source who told the Telegraph they will instead opt for somewhere the Duchess is familiar with and touted both Toronto, south east Canada, and LA, California, as contenders.
The ex-actress has strong ties to both cities – she was born and raised in LA and, between 2011 and 2017, lived in Toronto to film Suits.
After the Sussexes announced this week their desire to step back from official duties and carve out a ‘progressive role’ within the family, Meghan boarded a BA flight back to the Vancouver Island property where she had left Archie with her nanny.
Yet, although she is not understood to have booked a return flight to London, it is believed the town is too sleepy for the couple who are looking to become ‘financially independent’.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Canada House in London after returning from their Christmas break on Vancouver Island
Following the couple’s decision to quit as senior Royals and relocate to North America, it was speculated they planned to settle in the leafy Canadian neighbourhood where they spent Christmas in a £10.7million waterfront property (pictured)
They will instead opt for somewhere the Duchess is familiar with and touted both Toronto, south east Canada, (left) and LA, California, (right) as contenders
The area is a bolthole for the rich and famous, who appreciate the privacy the lakeside neighbourhood provides.
David Foster, the music producer who set Harry and Meghan up with the house for their six-week getaway, often hosts celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler, the newspaper reported.
Prince Harry will join Meghan in Canada as early as next weekend – giving rise to fears that they may never return to live in the UK.
Sources have told the Mail that the prince has a ‘packed’ diary of meetings at the beginning of next week and an official engagement at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
It could be his last as a working royal, depending on how negotiations with the rest of the royal family go.
After that he is expected to fly back to Canada, where his wife is with their eight-month-old son, Archie, and two dogs. This could come as early as next weekend, and will certainly be within two weeks.
It is understood that Meghan, who left the country on Thursday, does not have a return flight booked back to London.
Sources confirmed to the Mail there are no official engagements in her diary for the ‘foreseeable future’.
Prince Harry will join Meghan in Canada as early as next weekend – giving rise to fears that they may never return to live in the UK. Pictured with eight-month-old Archie
The couple have been living in a luxury £10.7million property on Vancouver Island. Archie was left there with his nanny and Meghan’s best friend, Toronto-based stylist Jessica Mulroney, and her family while the Sussexes flew back to London together on Monday.
The Duchess has not been spotted at the sprawling Vancouver Island home where they spent their break, but the Telegraph report that after her BA flight Meghan was whisked back to the mansion where she was thought to have left her eight-month-old.
Insiders insisted yesterday that Harry had always planned to stay in Britain when his wife flew back to Canada.
He will undertake his first official royal engagement since the beginning of November on Thursday, when he hosts the Rugby League World Cup draw. This is likely to be somewhat awkward due to the presence of the British media, for which he has so clearly expressed his disdain.
Guy, the rescue beagle (pictured) that Meghan has owned since her pre-marriage days, and a female black Labrador puppy, travelled out with the couple to Canada in November and have remained there
Harry believes it is possible for him to work things through and retain some role working for his grandmother, the Queen.
Royal aides confirmed that their negotiations over the couple’s future were ‘progressing well’ yesterday.
But the presence of his family across the Atlantic, leaving their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage – refurbished using £2.4million worth of taxpayers’ money, but empty since last November – suggests the move is already more permanent than anyone believed.
Yesterday two SUVs could be seen coming and going from the holiday home. A 6ft-high chain-link fence lining swathes of the grounds, erected before the royal couple’s arrival, remained in place.
A clue to Harry and Meghan’s bombshell plans was that they flew their two beloved pets with them to Vancouver Island.
Guy, the rescue beagle that Meghan has owned since her pre-marriage days, and a female black Labrador puppy, travelled out with the couple to Canada in November and have remained there.
A black Labrador was seen yesterday roaming the grounds. Royal insiders confirmed that the dogs staying in Canada ‘was the biggest clue, in hindsight, that they were unlikely to come back from this so-called holiday’.
The source added: ‘Both the duke and duchess adore their dogs and Guy has already been relocated from Canada to London once when Meghan moved over.
‘She wouldn’t have considered a move again for him if it wasn’t going to be at least semi-permanent.’
Trudy Bennett, 76, who lives near the Canadian home, told the Mail last night: ‘There was never a dog on the property and at least one dog is still there. My husband also heard some British accents around the property yesterday.’
Meghan’s return after just a few days in Britain was anticipated by locals, who treated them as ‘ordinary neighbours’ and made every effort to protect their privacy.
Meanwhile, the Sussexes declined to name the alleged Russian billionaire who may have bankrolled their getaway. The owner of the mansion has masked his identity using controversial legal methods.
‘It’s always her way or the highway – she flees when things get heavy’: Friends and family of Meghan Markle open up to DAVID JONES about Megxit – and NONE are surprised she jumped the royal ship
Among the innumerable fascinating traits I uncovered when researching Meghan Markle’s life story was her fondness for homespun mottos.
She seemed to have an aphorism to suit almost every eventuality. One was recited to her friends whenever she embarked on some landmark venture, such as a career move or a new relationship.
‘Never give it five minutes if you’re not prepared to give it five years,’ she would declare (omitting to say this mantra was originally coined by her first husband, Trevor Engelson).
That it has taken Meghan considerably less time — just 20 months — to decide she cannot adjust to the rigours of royal duty may have shocked the British public.
This week, however, I have canvassed many of my sources for the biography of the Duchess that I wrote for the Mail, including her oldest friends, maternal grandmother and relatives of the now happily remarried Mr Engelson.
None of these people — who know how Meghan conducts herself and the strategies she employs — is surprised that this free-spirited and untameably headstrong woman has so prematurely jumped the royal ship, and ‘cut and run’ (as one friend put it) for a new life in Canada.
Of course, she has not taken this momentous decision, which amounts to abdication, unilaterally. Prince Harry, who spoke so enthusiastically of the work he and Meghan would do together when their engagement was announced, has since become so disillusioned that his mental health is said to have been affected.
‘Never give it five minutes if you’re not prepared to give it five years,’ she would declare (omitting to say this mantra was originally coined by her first husband, Trevor Engelson). That it has taken Meghan considerably less time — just 20 months — to decide she cannot adjust to the rigours of royal duty may have shocked the British public. Pictured: Outside Canada House with Prince Harry on Tuesday
She developed a particular infatuation for Princess Diana, devouring books and videos about her life and humanitarian work then setting out to emulate her by serving the homeless in skid-row soup kitchens. Her obsession gathered pace when she visited London in 1996, making a beeline for Buckingham Palace and having her photo taken outside the gates (pictured, with friend Ninaki Priddy)
Yet friends feel sure Meghan will have been the prime instigator of their hasty escape.
Indeed, their official resignation statement drips with the laidback phraseology of surfside California — they are not resigning but ‘stepping back’ to ‘transition’ into a ‘progressive new role’ — and friends believe it was penned by Meghan herself.
‘I saw this coming — it was just a matter of time,’ one of Meghan’s oldest confidantes told me yesterday. ‘With Meghan, it has always been her way or the highway. She is always the centre of the relationship, regardless of Harry’s title. She wants to be in the limelight, but under her own terms.
‘Now she will get to make her own rules. It’s perfect for her. Meghan likes to flee when things get heavy, and observe from afar what she has done. I’m sure she wanted to get back to her inner circle (in Canada); her new creative team who are behind these plans.
‘She has been able to move fast because this has been planned for months. She is running a campaign. This is not just an exit. It is a long-game strategy that has been set in motion for some time.’
Yesterday the Mail revealed how Meghan had left her eight-month old baby Archie in Canada, in the care of his nanny and reportedly her close friend Jessica Mulroney, when she flew briefly back to Britain a few days ago, after she and Harry enjoyed a seven-week break, including Christmas and the New Year, on Vancouver Island.
‘It’s easier for her to go to London and play this game without [Archie] there,’ the friend continued. ‘She has an ability to compartmentalise so she can succeed.’
According to the friend this behaviour may be rooted in the early years of her life which, as for any child of divorced parents, were not always straightforward and her experiences may have taught her something about the intricacies of family diplomacy.
‘I don’t think [Meghan] is fully aware of how much backlash she will receive [but] I honestly don’t think she cares at the moment,’ adds the friend.
‘What’s one country when she’s got the whole world at her feet? She won’t set foot in the UK again, let alone live there, unless she gets what she feels she’s worth.’
‘Something must have gone very wrong for her to give all this up. But this is what they have decided, and we have to respect it.’ Perhaps so. Others will take a different view. But Ava Burrows, who was married to Meghan’s late maternal grandfather, Alvin Ragland, broadly agrees
‘I saw this coming — it was just a matter of time,’ one of Meghan’s oldest confidantes told me yesterday. ‘With Meghan, it has always been her way or the highway. She is always the centre of the relationship, regardless of Harry’s title. She wants to be in the limelight, but under her own terms.’ Pictured: Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson in East Hampton, NY in 2006
Like other friends and family members I spoke to, my source recalled, with irony, how Meghan had formed a fancifully romantic impression of British royalty as a Los Angeles schoolgirl.
She developed a particular infatuation for Princess Diana, devouring books and videos about her life and humanitarian work then setting out to emulate her by serving the homeless in skid-row soup kitchens.
Her obsession gathered pace when she visited London in 1996, making a beeline for Buckingham Palace and having her photo taken outside the gates.
According to her school friend Ninaki Priddy, who posed beside her in that portentous snapshot, her avowed ambition was to become ‘Princess Diana 2.0’.
When Meghan became entwined with Diana’s son, in 2016, her fantasy appeared to have been fulfilled. It was only after they were married, and Meghan awoke to the constraints and frequent monotony of her role that this girlish dream evaporated.
She may have envisaged becoming a freewheeling global ambassador championing her causes — which range from women’s rights to improving Third World sanitation — but the reality all too often entailed glad-handing crowds in some rainy Midlands town.
So, as her old friend surmised: ‘Her ideal princess fairytale didn’t work out like she wanted. She thought she would be able to control her own narrative and she felt limited by the royal rules.
‘She was cut off from her usual channels — her Twitter account or Instagram — which meant she couldn’t speak out on causes the way she wanted. In that silence, I’m sure she convinced Harry to pick a “side” (either her chosen path or that which the Palace establishment had laid out for them). For her it was never about modernising the Royal Family.
‘She made it look like she was on board and willing to play the game of “duty”, but Meghan is not one to bite her tongue or take to the British stiff upper-lip.’
Then there was the public criticism of her. Though the majority of British people have taken Meghan to their hearts, friends say she sees matters very differently.
Behind the steely veneer she developed when climbing the greasy pole in Hollywood, she is highly sensitive to disapproval and needs adoration. That became evident when, speaking to ITN’s Tom Bradby last year, she bemoaned the fact that nobody had bothered to ask how she was faring as a new wife and mother.
Friends feel this was another major factor in the decision to cut ties with the Palace and limit her time in Britain.
Raised in America, where standards are very different, they say she will be unable to countenance why she is attacked for spending lavishly on home refurbishments, for example; or using her social media platform to publicise the fashion designs and fitness workouts of friends in her social circle.
‘I think, when she started to receive limitations from the Royal Family, and all of a sudden she couldn’t control things any more, she no longer wanted to participate in the grand scheme of royalty,’ the friend surmises.
Meghan and Harry have, of course, blamed an over-intrusive, hyper-critical media for many of their problems, but she added: ‘Meghan has been playing the narrative of “woe is me”, but she knew what she was getting into.
It was clear from the [ITN] documentary that she was already spinning the Press issue in a certain way.’
Another woman who knows how Meghan’s mind works is Sonia Ardakani, the mother of her closest school friend, Suzy Ardakani.
During her teens, when her father Thomas worked long hours as a Hollywood lighting director and her mother, Doria, frequently worked away from LA, Meghan often stayed at Mrs Ardakani’s house and her friend’s mother became almost a surrogate aunt.
Last year, she told me how Meghan’s determination to use her royal role as a force for good, and her deep-seated respect for the institution of royalty, would make her a huge asset to the family.
Digesting the news in LA yesterday, however, she revised that opinion. ‘Yes, Meghan wanted to be a princess, but I guess a princess in her way,’ she told me. (In LA, duchesses and princesses are interchangeable.)
‘In a way I am surprised she has chosen to do this, but we know how independent Meghan is. She deals with business in her own way, and I guess the Queen didn’t allow her to do that.
‘Then there is all the attention she is getting. She might have been an actress, but nothing can have prepared her for that. Life seems to have become miserable for her and Harry, and they will remember what happened to Diana.
‘Something must have gone very wrong for her to give all this up. But this is what they have decided, and we have to respect it.’
Perhaps so. Others will take a different view. But Ava Burrows, who was married to Meghan’s late maternal grandfather, Alvin Ragland, broadly agrees.
Two years ago, when I visited her home in the Californian desert to break the news that Meghan and Harry were to be married, Mrs Burrows, a retired teacher, whooped with delight, slapped her thigh, and declared: ‘Meggie marrying a prince? Who’d have thunk!’
Yet her joy was tempered with the reality that Meghan, with her mixed-race heritage and dysfunctional family background, had been raised in a milieu light-years removed from that of her future husband, and, in her jocular manner, sounded a note of caution.
The Daily Mail has learnt that Meghan (left on a previous trip) returned to North America, where their eight-month-old son, Archie, had been left with his nanny. The news of her travel plans come as her and Prince Harry (right) announced they would be stepping back from their Royal duties
Idyllic: The royal couple have been living in a luxury £10.7million property on Vancouver Island, where it is believed Meghan has returned to after spending just three days in the UK
The Queen is seen on Friday for the first time since the Duke and Duchess revealed they were stepping down as senior royals
‘I guess it’s like your Downton Abbey, and we are the folks downstairs,’ was how she put it. ‘I’m kind of expecting the men in black suits (she meant either the FBI or Buckingham Palace officials) to check us out.’
Her inference was that it would take a gargantuan leap for Meghan to adjust to her new life. As Mrs Burrows is too busy caring for her ailing mother to follow the news closely, it fell to me yesterday to inform her that her misgivings had proved prescient. ‘No! Really? I hadn’t heard!’ she exclaimed, when I told her Meghan and Harry would be spending considerably more time on her side of the pond.
After a pause, she offered a more considered response. ‘I don’t know if ‘surprised’ is the right word. I guess it’s been just too hard for her (to adjust). I guess pressure is pressure, and you only know how much you can take when you’re in the middle of it. Speaking as a grandmother, I think that when you have a baby you want to be near your own mother, and now Meghan will be able to see much more of Doria. I’m sure she will be delighted to see more of Meghan and her grandson.
‘But I don’t imagine Meggie will have made the decision by herself. Maybe with Harry’s history — with the situation with his mother —maybe he’s tired, too, and had been for a long time. I guess this is their exit strategy.’
Whatever the fall-out from this bombshell break for freedom, declared without even the courtesy of a discussion with senior royals, we can be sure there will be no turning back.
For as I discovered, Meghan has made a promise to herself to live her life in the manner of her own choosing, almost regardless of the consequences — and when she decides on something there is never a backward glance.
In many ways, this outlook was shaped by her experiences as an obscure actress struggling to make her name. In her 20s, she swung between periods of ecstasy and abject despair.
When she landed a film or TV role the champagne corks would pop; when she was rejected she would wallow in bed for days, swallowing her misery with glasses of wine and junk food.
Then, on August 1, 2014, her 33rd birthday, her outlook was transformed by a moment she calls her epiphany. ‘I always dreamed, but I guess it’s safe to say I never dreamed big,’ she wrote in The Tig, the candid lifestyle blog she posted before meeting Harry.
During the couple’s brief return to the UK together, they paid a visit to the Grenfell kitchen in west London shortly before the bombshell news broke
‘And then I made a choice to live my life less stifled. To try not to just live, but to live so fully that my life was bursting at the seams, my days felt purpose-driven and heart felt full. To stop living my life complacently and start taking risks, and to dream bigger than I ever imagined.’
Though she admitted it sounded ‘dramatic and cheesy’, she called this her ‘re-birthday’. The ‘reborn’ Meghan was as good as her word. Soon after, she divorced Engelson (returning his wedding and engagement rings by post) and began a relationship with Cory Vitiello, a celebrity chef she met in Toronto, where she was filming Suits, the TV soap that brought her the fame she craved.
She also ditched her old friends in Los Angeles to join a more elevated circle in her ‘adopted city’, as she calls it, among them her baby-minder in absentia this week, Jessica Mulroney, the high-end stylist married to former Canadian Prime Minister’s son Ben Mulroney.
Those she ‘ghosted’ say they were so ruthlessly expunged from Meghan’s new life that it was as though they had ceased to exist.
Now, although she and Harry have deigned to pledge their support for the Queen, she has effectively dismissed the Royal Family in a similar manner.
The news was greeted with a knowing sigh by Engelson’s uncle, Mickey-Miles Felton. ‘Meghan is very opinionated and doesn’t like being told what to do,’ he told me, adding: ‘She knew what she was getting into when she married Harry. But we won’t be gloating over this. That’s not our style.’
Mr Felton, 75, a top U.S. lacrosse coach, uses a sporting analogy to describe Meghan’s ‘desertion’. ‘It’s like me signing up to coach a team knowing it’ll be a big challenge, then quitting as soon as the going gets tough,’ he said.
Meghan and Harry say they will live between Britain and North America. So, where might they settle across the Atlantic?
A lover of the great outdoors since her childhood, when she fished and hiked on camping trips with her father, Meghan has a long-standing affection for Vancouver Island, where she and Harry spent their extended winter break, and where their momentous decision appears to have been finalised.
Intriguingly, I am told that, in the dying days of her marriage to Engelson, he and Meghan retreated to the island, with its magnificent forests and wild coastline, in a last-ditch attempt to reconcile their differences.
They stayed in a house belonging to the family of her fellow Suits cast member Patrick Adams.
However, it is probably too remote for Meghan and Harry to make their home there. The betting among those I spoke to is that they will base themselves in Toronto, where, almost four years ago, their romance began. Leaving aside the harsh winter weather (the temperature sank to -17C two nights ago) there are many reasons they might return there.
For one thing it is a city where privacy is sacrosanct and even the most famous celebrity could walk the streets without being troubled. For another, it is a short hop from New York and only five hours flying time from Los Angeles, where Doria lives.
Then there are the many influential friends Meghan made there, the free-and-easy ambience and liberal attitudes, not to mention some of her favourite shops, restaurants, parks and yoga studios.
Former next-door neighbour, Bill Kapetanos, 77, is confident she and Harry will choose to raise baby Archie in Toronto. ‘Everything they need as a family is here, and the Canadians will leave them in peace, which seems to be what they want,’ said Mr Kapetanos.
He was among the first to see Harry secretly visiting Meghan at the house she rented in Seaton Village and often chatted to her over the garden fence. They will probably choose a more exclusive suburb, such as Rosedale or Deer Park where their friends the Mulroneys have their mansion.
But settling there could present one drawback. They would almost certainly find themselves in the same circle as old flame Vitiello.
Should that happen, the redoubtable Meghan will doubtless draw on another of her favourite mottos: ‘Women are like teabags — they don’t realise how strong they are until they get into hot water.’
Prince Charles fears Harry is at a ‘tipping point’ and vows to do everything to help him after a series of ‘heartfelt discussions’ with his son
By Jack Elsom for MailOnline
Prince Charles has rallied round his youngest son Prince Harry, who he fears has reached ‘tipping point’ as the fallout of his and Meghan Markle’s decision to quit as senior Royals continues to rage.
An insider claimed on Friday night the heir to the throne had vowed to support his son whatever the outcome of the turmoil currently engulfing the Sussexes.
Meghan and Harry’s bombshell announcement sent shockwaves reverberating throughout the Royal Family and forced crisis talks between the Queen, Charles and William, who was said to be furious with his brother for blindsiding them.
Although Charles has been bunkered down in these discussions to develop a ‘workable solution’ to the couple’s ‘progressive’ future, his primary concern is the welfare of his son.
‘He [Charles] is absolutely clear in his mind that Harry is at a tipping point and has promised him he would do everything in his power to help him,’ a source told the Mirror.
Prince Charles has rallied round his youngest son Prince Harry, who he fears has reached ‘tipping point’ as the fallout of his and Meghan Markle’s decision to quit as senior Royals continues to rage (pair pictured in Kensington in April 2019)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their intention to quit royal life yesterday – triggering intense discussions and a four-way conference call involving all four royal households
‘Charles told him he would stand by him no matter what, but urged him to come up with a sensible plan that could be worked through in order to satisfy everyone.’
The Prince of Wales’ concern for Harry was revealed as it emerged:
Harry has had heart-to-hearts with his father over the past few months where he made his dissatisfaction with his current role clear, the source added.
But the second most senior Royal, 71, sees Meghan and Harry playing a crucial part in his vision for the monarchy when he takes the reigns.
Another source close to the Prince of Wales said he believes the Sussexes are the monarchy’s ‘greatest asset’ and has ordered officials to double down on efforts to keep the couple in the fold.
The insider told the Mirror: ‘There’s a genuine fear from Charles that this could be the beginning of the end for Harry and Meghan’s involvement with the family, and that in his words would be an “utter tragedy”.’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who earlier this week revealed they would be stepping down as senior royals, returned to visit the women of The Hubb Community Kitchen
The Queen, who spent Christmas at Sandringham with her family and usually stays at the estate until February, is embroiled in a full-blown crisis as senior royals including Princes Charles and William ordered their teams to find a ‘workable solution’ to Harry and Meghan’s future roles
Talks between Buckingham Palace and Sussex household officials to cement the couple’s role going forward are believed to be making headway.
Meghan and Harry are ‘hopeful’ that crunch talks determining their new stripped-back role in the Royal Family can be thrashed out ‘sooner rather than later’, a source revealed Friday night.
The insider close to the couple negotiations between the Palace and the Sussex household are ‘progressing well’, in consultation with both the UK and Canadian government.
They said: ‘They, like everyone, are hopeful this can all be worked out, sooner rather than later.
‘It is in everyone’s interest for this to be figured out, and figured out quickly, but not at the expense of the outcome.’
The revelation Charles plans to stand shoulder to shoulder with his embattled son no matter what came as the Prince’s biographer said Harry was behaving wildly out of character.
Penny Junor said that ‘something is seriously amiss’ with the Duke, who she said had morphed from a ‘charming, cheerful, self-deprecating Jack the Lad’ to a father weighed down by the emotions of parenthood who is on a path of self-destruction.
Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: ‘As a close observer of him as man and boy, I am worried about the new approach he is taking to life.
The recklessness shown in his and Meghan’s seismic decision effectively to quit the Royal Family (except, seemingly, when it suits them) and forge their own “progressive” path — while pursuing financial independence — does not speak to me of a balanced or careful strategy, even if they have, as alleged, been ‘plotting’ it for months.
She added: ‘The intense emotions of parenthood have surely been a factor.
‘Harry made no secret of his desire for a family of his own, and his delightful rapport with childen showed what a devoted father he would become. His joy at Archie’s birth in May was wonderful to behold.
‘Alarmingly, though, he has appeared determined since then on what might appear to be a trajectory of self-destruction — and I do not use that phrase lightly.’
The Queen, who is in Sandringham, wants the situation resolved as quickly as possible. Prince Charles (left), currently in Scotland, was also involved in the conference call along with Prince William (right), at Kensington Palace