‘Unwelcome’: Harry and Meghan ‘forced’ to downsize

PHOTO: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. FILE

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are reportedly moving due to ‘money issues’, but they might not be welcome where they are heading to.

It appears the super rich and super famous might not be immune from the cost of living crisis either, with news Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might be moving from their luxury California mansion due to the eye-watering costs of upkeep.

The Sussexes bought the nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom estate, which Megan says is where she feels ‘free’, for $US14.65 million ($A21.5m) two years ago in celebrity haven Montecito.

There in Santa Barbara county, about an hour and a half drive from downtown Los Angeles, they count the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ellen DeGeneres as neighbours.

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And while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are mega wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, they are but English-ish peasants living in a thatched cottage in comparison to their mega, mega wealthy neighbours, who own pads worth much closer to the $US100m ($A160m) mark.

Paltrow just finished building her $US100m+ dream home in Montecito, that by all reports dwarfs the Sussex’s ‘humble’ pad.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s home in Montecito, in Santa Barbara, California. Pics from the sale listing in 2015. Supplied

‘Will we still be friends, even if we’re not living in Montecito?’

The cost of maintaining this Montecito estate might have become all too much.

“It’s a wholly different game to be with those super-rich people,” The Australian reported royal biographer Tina Brown as saying.

“Their $14 million dollar mansion is a humble cottage compared to what these other people have.”

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After shunning England and their taxpayer paid security detail, protection for Harry and Meghan reportedly costs as much as $US3m a year. While, in dry California the cost of keeping their lawn and its surrounds looking tip top, so they aren’t embarrassed in front of the neighbours, is another massive cost issue.

The hardest part will be leaving the chicken coop behind.

Oh, and this.

Such dramas would be non-existent if they have stayed in soggy England.

“The lawn is so verdant it’s better not to consider the water bill”, Brown said.

Fundraising page set up to pay Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s $19.7million mortgage

And so, the universe’s’s best known estranged Royals might be downsizing 15 minutes north of Montecito to the relatively cheap surrounds of Hope Ranch, which thankfully is still a refuge, of sorts, for the rich and famous including Snoop Dogg.