Harry and Meghan moving house allegedly

[Viviennemary]

Since this is being reported in thd DM and Daily Express perhaps it is on the cards. Seems quite soon to be moving though I don't blame them. Its quite a grotty and unappealing house and the gardens. All those bushes. Must cost a fortune to maintain. And not very child friendly either.

Grotty and unappealing? It looks a lovely house. Maybe not secure enough though?

Maybe they're having problems with the mortgage and have managed to borrow a house?

Saw this. The stories are saying they like the general area but less so the house and the neighbourhood. I can imagine it's a difficult house to maintain - it's big and seemed to be in need of a fair bit of updating. They may have decided that's not what they are up for now. Renting for a while might have been better than buying, with hindsight.

I think those mega mansions can take months if not years to shift.

'Grotty and unappealing?'
Been hiding out in all those bushes spying on them, have you?

It's a beautiful property and I wouldn't say no.

Rumour is that they were only renting it.

If they've any sense they wouldn't buy such an expensive house.

Apparently harry is in line to receive another 8 million that the queen mother left him but he isn't to receive it until he's 40. So William will be getting his soon I suppose.

I dont want to be shot by one of their security guards thanks. So no. There are plenty of photos of the interior and exterior of the house on line. For the price it is not a nice house

That house is a 50 minute walk to the beach. A smaller house right on the beach might be nicer. JMO

A smaller house would also suit a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Agree that beach side sounds very appealing. If it's anything like the UK property market though it'll be cutthroat at the moment to buy anything.

I thought the suggestion that Harry has an inheritance coming from the Queen Mother had been debunked, though. The royals do the obvious thing in practice and the next in line, i.e. the Queen, inherits everything of substance. And in this instance had to pay off the Queen Mother's debts too if that story is correct. So I don't think Harry, William or anyone else have money coming from that source.

A fifty minute walk to the beach? Anyone seriously think they would walk to the beach. I highly doubt it, :they will drive there in one of the huge gas guzzlers that us plebs are preached at for daring to use!!

All I care is that I'm not paying for it.

True, I didnt think they'd walk it!
But what"s the point living 50 minutes walk from the beach in a 15 million dollar mansion. Something a quarter the size but right on the beach would be so much nicer.

The pictures we have of the house are before they moved in. The only recent pic is the library zoom call. So not sure how anyone on here knows what the house looks like.

OP, you sure know a lot about people you don't like.

The Fail will be paying for the house from the looks of it.

The Fail will be paying for the house from the looks of it

That's an interesting point and I'd wondered about it myself, as in, whether they were now planning a house upgrade based on an anticipated pay out from the court case. As it happens, the Guardian have reported on that this morning.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/05/meghan-one-pound-mail-on-sunday-privacy-invasion

Gist of this: Meghan has been awarded £1 for the privacy aspect of the case, and an 'undisclosed sum' will follow with regard to the copyright infringement, plus an amount towards her legal costs. Excerpt from the article below:

'Mark Stephens, a media lawyer, suggested that the nominal settlement for the privacy aspect suggested a weakness in that aspect of Meghan’s case: “Normally for that kind of invasion of privacy you would expect £75,000 to £125,000. It does show that the curation of her reputation was an area where she had effectively invaded her own privacy.”

The newspaper’s publisher has also agreed to pay a confidential sum in damages for copyright infringement. TheMail on Sundayalso faces having to cover a substantial part of Meghan’s legal costs, which could be more than £1m.'

Disclosure: I'm not a legal professional. However, I can't imagine the copyright settlement being huge because Meghan hasn't lost any income from it - you wouldn't expect a private letter to a family member to be the kind of original composition that would earn you income. It's not like a song or creative piece. Open to correction from copyright and legal experts of course. The legal costs payment may be huge, but of course that goes to the lawyers (who are the big winners every time). So I'm less convinced now that there will be money from the court case available to boost a house purchase. It will be interesting to see what kind of new property they go for.

I'm a bit surprised that the Guardian is using such a click bait headline.

The Fail has already paid £450K to MM for the first case, and the judge said there would be more to pay.

Back when the fail was trying to convince people that MM would lose, they cited the millions she would have to pay them. Russell Myers said in an interview a few weeks ago, that the Fail had already spent £3M on the first case. I presume they double this to £6M in total for both court appearances. Then they have to pay 95% of MM's legal fees, which we can assume will be the same as the Fails. So the Fail has to dish out around £10M in legal fees alone.

On top of that they have to pay a lot of money in 'significant damages'. MM's lawyers also want the money they made from reporting on the case.

I don't think they are upgrading house (if that is true) because of the win from the case. Maybe for security/child friendly etc.

“Grotty and Unappealing”

But if you're saying the legal costs alone will be in the £10 million region, why is the Guardian saying they 'could be more than £1m'? That's quite a difference. Have you got any links documenting those figures and percentages stated in your post above?

I said above why I didn't think the copyright payout would be big. Is that what you're referring to as 'substantial damages'?

Not sure why you think it's a 'clickbait' headline, other than it not being glowing and positive about
Meghan - which the Guardian generally is. I would assume it reflects an understandable level of surprise at the figure of the privacy settlement.

A smaller house would also suit a more environmentally friendly lifestyle - I doubt they'll be moving to a smaller house then. Probably bigger if anything.

I don't know the Guardian to be glowing about Meghan. They just never jumped on the hate train. I said click bait because that £1 is the main headline on this story and no mention of amounts already paid out, and basically gives the impression that is the only amount she will get.

If you google how much she will get, several American press say over 2M, but I am not too sure of the source.

Back in 2020 Russell Myers said on Lorraine that MM has already spent over £1m on the case and how it's costing her etc. and she would have to pay the fail their own million too. In this recent interview, however and on his article he talks about the £3m which I had assumed meant the million he was talking about had inflated over time, but it looks like he is including MM in the costs.

So, my mistake, I think it will be closer to £5M - half of the cost I had initially thought. That is, if we are to believe tabloids, funny since the price was bloated when it was thought MM would lose.

I also note that the DM has been shmum on the amount, when they know the exact figures, surely.

At 1.30 he mentions the 3M amount

I would be surprised if they were renting the house, as much was made of the fact they bought it with a mortgage ‘like any couple buying their first home’. Articles from the time also say that there are property records showing the house sold at that time to a vaguely named Trust, which shared an address with Meghan Markle’s business partner (link to source for this below).

www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.dirt.com/more-dirt/heirs-heiresses/meghan-markle-prince-harry-house-montecito-1203333111/amp/

However, I am puzzled about the move. I think the pre-sale photos of the house look lovely, but it is a very particular style (exposed wood etc) and if you didn’t like that, you’d need to spend a lot to change it. I remember seeing another photo of the kitchen from a different angle and thinking it looked very dark and I wouldn’t enjoy that being the ‘heart’ of my home.

But still - they haven’t been there long, and they knew all that when they bought it….

Obviously I don’t know how their money sits, but I assume they have a lot of advances for the Netflix, Spotify and book deals, but I also assume they don’t get the next payments until they turn over some content, and with no content for over a year now since the announcements/advance payment, I’m assuming cash is getting lower. Unless it’s funded by speaking at private engagements or being paid to attend private parties that we don’t hear about?

Are they running out of cash for the upkeep of such a big house? Is a big balloon payment due on the mortgage soon that they can’t afford? Or is it the opposite - they have more money (from where?!?) and want to upgrade?

Or might not be about money at all - they might want to move to New York or Washington to pursue politics and a different crowd of people?

Or….what? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Apparently they are not "over the moon" with the house. Some people are harder to please than others.

I know how they feel. Im not over the moon with my house either !!

Thought they said sources don’t speak for them especially to the British tabloids. I get why there would an increase be Harry and Meghan’s stories this week though😅.

Yes. M&H have vowed that unless it is an Archewell spokesperson... they will not speak from unnamed sources. Only Archewell communications team will speak on the record. Or not at all.
Good move I would say.

I wish the RF would do that. One spokesperson. Instead of unnamed sources and rubbish royal reporters.

The 'grotty and unappealing' comment about their house made me larf. If it was gifted to the poster who said that, I am 100% they would turn it down for that very reason!
It looks good to me! But sometimes when you have children, you find out exactly what suits you as a family and maybe this doesn't.