Inside the Chateau of Riven Rock: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s California home

According to Hello! the house has “a grand total of nine bedrooms and 16 bathrooms”, as well as a library, office, spa, gym, games room, cinema, wine cellar and five-car garage. A separate guest house also has two bedrooms and bathrooms. 

Cunningham said: “The kitchen is probably one of the coolest rooms in the house. It opens on to the side patio where the pizza oven and outdoor tables are. Living in Montecito, there’s a lot of indoor-outdoor lifestyle, so you easily move from decks to indoors.” 

The “Mediterranean-style main house includes a trove of beige and off-white decor”, said Dirt. “Oozing sophistication”, Markle’s office “is an oasis of calm with its natural tones and rustic furniture”, said Hello!, while the living room is “decked out with modern artwork, fresh flowers, candles and organic pottery”.

The garden is “beautifully landscaped” with “tiered rose gardens, olive trees and cypress trees”, said Architectural Digest. There is a “tennis court, a swimming pool, and a chicken coop”, which featured in the couple’s “bombshell” TV interview with Winfrey, which was broadcast in 2021. 

Archie and Lilibet can also enjoy “an adventure playground, a climbing frame, a helter-skelter, and two different climbing walls”, said Hello! Metro reported that there is also a “tea house” and a “children’s cottage”. 

Who paid for the house?

In 2020, a source told US Weekly that Harry “could’ve asked [Prince] Charles to contribute toward the cost of the house”, but he “chose not to” go to his father, as it would “result in the royals having control over him” and would “mean going backwards”. 

The couple “paid out of their own pockets” instead and “have taken out a huge mortgage”, said the source. The estate cost an “unquestionably hefty” $14.65m (£12.12m), said Dirt, and a $9.5m (£7.9m) mortgage was secured to make the purchase.

Omid Scobie, royal correspondent and co-author of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, told Entertainment Today that the Sussexes “are extremely liquid when it comes to their assets. 

“Harry brings a lot to the table himself and Meghan lives off residuals from Suits and the many appearances that she’s done in other projects too,” Scobie said. In the tell-all interview with Winfrey in 2021, Harry said money left to him by his late mother, Princess Diana, had meant he was able to support himself financially.

US Weekly said the couple were “proud of their purchase” and saw it as “the next step toward their long future together”.  

Will they stay there?

The Mirror reported in January that the Sussexes were thinking of selling their Californian home. A source told the paper: “They want to stay in the neighbourhood or nearby but they aren’t over the moon about the house and the location.”

A few months later, The Mail+ reported that the couple were “considering renting a second home – an apartment in New York, near the United Nations headquarters”. The news site noted: “Meghan is said to harbour ambitions of a UN role like her friend Amal Clooney.” 

As yet, there are no signs that the Montecito property is back on the market.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/us/957679/where-do-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-live