The final Megxit: As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make a last-minute corona dash to settle in LA

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a last minute dash across the border from Canada to the US to start their new life in Los Angeles. 

The couple took a private jet to California with their ten-month-old son Archie just before non-essential travel between the two countries was suspended last week because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Harry and Meghan have long planned to set up in the duchess’s home state, where her mother Doria lives – but were forced to bring plans forward because of the outbreak.

They leave behind their borrowed £10million mansion on Canada’s tranquil Vancouver Island to join their team of Hollywood agents and publicists, who they have hired to launch their new careers. 

Sources said the couple, who officially step down as senior royals on Tuesday, knew Canada ‘wouldn’t work for them’ in the long-term. 

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend The Endeavour Fund Awards at Mansion House on March 05, 2020. Their last public engagement

Harry and Meghan’s exact whereabouts is unknown, but it has been reported they are ‘locking down’ in an exclusive gated community in LA. 

The move, which comes shortly after Canadian authorities said they would no longer contribute to the cost of the couple’s security, has fired up the row over who should foot the bill. 

The Sussexes insist they are still entitled to taxpayer-funded security abroad – provided by the Met Police to the tune of millions of pounds a year. 

But critics point out the family is tying up valuable resources at a time when Britain needs every officer deployed in the battle against coronavirus. 

The move to North America has paved the way for the couple to have their own armed private security team. 

In Canada, private security guards are not allowed to carry and use guns unless they are guarding cash or precious metals – but California has some of the tightest private protection in the world. 

Meghan is said to have found life as a Royal too restrictive and immediately wanted to leave

Meghan is said to have found life as a Royal too restrictive and immediately wanted to leave

Last night Dai Davies, former head of royalty protection at Scotland Yard, said: ‘It is time for them to cut the strings. 

‘Surely now is the opportunity for the Met to say enough is enough, pay for your own security and relinquish our officers because the Met needs them back in Britain helping their colleagues in London. 

‘We are in the grip of a national emergency and the Met is so desperate it is asking retired officers to come back. 

‘And what are Harry and Meghan doing? Flying straight into the worst affected country, while Harry’s father is ill, his grandparents are elderly and at risk and the country is in lockdown. The timing of this is unbelievable.’ 

If the pair planned to ‘live like rock stars’ they should expect to be treated like celebrities and pay their own way, Mr Davies added. 

He said the US is ‘very well policed’, but warned: ‘In Hollywood, Harry and Meghan will raise their profile and therefore the risk to them may increase. They will have to contend with paparazzi who know no boundaries, especially in America.’ 

Prince Harry visits Abbey Road Studios to meet Jon Bon Jovi and members of the Invictus Games Choir, who recorded a special single in aid of the Invictus Games Foundation

Prince Harry visits Abbey Road Studios to meet Jon Bon Jovi and members of the Invictus Games Choir, who recorded a special single in aid of the Invictus Games Foundation

The move is likely to spark a fresh review by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec), which is made up of the Home Office, the Met Police’s royalty protection command and palace officials. 

Ultimately, the decision on whether the couple should be stripped of their taxpayer-funded security would be in the hands of Home Secretary Priti Patel. 

Meanwhile the move to Hollywood will also have serious personal and financial implications for the couple. 

Harry cannot automatically become a US citizen by marriage – rather, Meghan will have to go through the formal process of petitioning for him to receive a ‘permanent lawful residency’, known as a Green Card. 

The upmarket shopping street, Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

The upmarket shopping street, Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California 

Harry will be eligible to apply for full US citizenship in three years – but there is one stumbling block. 

One question asks: ‘Do you now have, or did you ever have, a hereditary title or an order of nobility in any foreign country?’ 

If the answer is ‘yes’, the applicant is then asked if he or she is willing to give up those titles at a ‘naturalisation’ ceremony. 

Harry will then have to decide whether to relinquish his Duke of Sussex title. 

The pair will also have to deal with complex tax issues. 

California is the highest tax state in the US, with an income tax rate of 13 per cent and federal tax rate of 37 per cent. 

As the Sussexes continue to build their new careers and all important top team, it yesterday emerged that they have poached one of Bill and Melinda Gates’ senior staff to lead their new charity. 

Catherine St-Laurent, who is director at Melinda Gates’ women and families foundation, told colleagues: ‘I am thrilled to be able to play a supporting role in realising [Harry and Meghan’s] vision.’

As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reach the promised land of California – within kissing distance of Hollywood – Meghan’s got all she wanted and Harry’s given up so much 

By Jan Moir 

And with one bound, they were free. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have finally reached the promised land of California and they are within kissing distance of Hollywood, no doubt their intended destination all along. 

That weird rental stay in Canada? 

It now seems clear that it was nothing but a smokescreen – a nice, Commonwealth-friendly stopgap to give a sheen of royal respectability to their act of usurpation. 

Or should that be her ambition? Now that the duchess has her duke exactly where she wants him, which is stuck fast in the amber of her Los Angeles hometown, will the power base in their relationship tilt even further her way? 

Undoubtedly so. From now until forever, in America at least, it is Meghan who will be the guest of honour and Harry the lowly plus one at her side. 

The famous Hollywood sign during a typically sunny Southern California day

The famous Hollywood sign during a typically sunny Southern California day

For she is the architect of their new world pageantry, the queen bee in their westerly Windsor hive. 

He will just have to hold her handbag and do what he is told – and perhaps he will be more than happy to do so. 

Surely, for a headstrong young pup like him, anything is better than his lowly post on the Windsor totem pole: being bossed around by Gan-Gan, Papa, big brother Wills and a battalion of chisel-faced courtiers insisting on protocol, protocol, protocol.

The couple say they still want to be busy, to support the Queen and carve out a progressive role within the Royal Family but that dream has already died, kids, that ship sailed long ago on the Megxit tide. 

This week, in the middle of the biggest public health crisis this country has ever seen, the Sussexes already seem self-absorbed, detached and utterly irrelevant. 

The residence of Prince Harry and and his wife Meghan is seen in Deep Cove Neighborhood from a boat on the Saanich Inlet, North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada

The residence of Prince Harry and and his wife Meghan is seen in Deep Cove Neighborhood from a boat on the Saanich Inlet, North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada

Perhaps it was bad timing but within hours of the nation coming together on Thursday to show its support of the NHS by taking to the streets and clapping, news emerged that the Sussexes had flown from Canada earlier this week – private jet, naturally – to settle in LA. 

Just as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis charmed the nation with that video footage of them earnestly clapping along, all rosy cheeks and sweet woolly jumpers, the Sussexes were nowhere to be seen. 

Public comfort came there none. All they could offer was a lame post on their preposterous SussexRoyal Instagram account, one that sounded like a note left for the cleaner. 

‘Thank you for all that you continue to do! Applauding you from across the pond,’ read the message, accompanied by two lines of clapping hands emojis. 

Honestly, Harry and Meghan, if this is the best you can do, don’t bloody bother.

Those dashed off ho-hum words are an insult to everyone in this country, not least of all those NHS workers on the front line risking their lives every day to save others and try to control this pandemic. 

At a time of national peril, the last thing anyone needs is another trite and meaningless gesture from this pair of do-gooding dopes, but sadly they seem unstoppable. 

The million dollar house Harry and Meghan are said to have looked at prior to their move

The million dollar house Harry and Meghan are said to have looked at prior to their move 

Earlier, the couple posted another gobbledegook quote to their 11.3million followers, harbouring under the fond delusion that it was somehow inspirational. 

‘This moment is as true a testament there is to the human spirit,’ it read. 

Is it really? Then why aren’t the pair of you doing something about it, instead of slipping from the public gaze entirely? 

No one is expecting the Sussexes – or any other royals – to start touring wards and crocheting facemasks, but surely the very essence of being royal is to provide a visible and calming presence at a time of catastrophe? 

Instead the Sussexes’ focus is, as ever, firmly on themselves. 

This week Disney announced that Meghan has provided the voiceover for a new wildlife documentary called Elephant, which starts streaming next month. 

That’s pretty fast work, considering it is just over six months since Prince Harry was caught on camera making that embarrassing red carpet pitch to Disney boss Bob Iger to get his wife some voiceover work. 

Ker-ching! It worked. 

That is the thing about the Sussexes. Harry and Meghan claim to be on the side of the little people and the disenfranchised. 

But they will grind home every advantage and privilege of their own with ruthless efficiency. 

We’re supposed to think this is all marvellous because Meghan is giving her Disney fee to charity, as if she is somehow doing the company a huge favour. 

Last year Disney donated over £274million to charitable causes, the tip of a corporate benevolence that also funds many college placements and children’s hospitals. 

Every little helps of course, but it is clear that the cause the Sussexes support most keenly is their own. 

Still, one must wish them well. 

The Sussexes have made it abundantly clear that, for them, royal life in Britain was not a sanctuary but a prison – one that they have decided to escape and now exploit abroad. 

Increasingly it is impossible to ignore the irony of historical momentum here, or fail to see the similarities between their situation and that of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. 

Both couples chose exile over duty, but it remains to be seen if the Sussexes will dissolve into the mortifying bog of inconsequence that engulfed the latter.

 

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