When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry made the move from Canada to Los Angeles in mid-March, a few weeks after their royal farewell tour in the U.K., it came as a surprise to the public. But according to a new report in the Sunday Times Magazine, the couple’s friends had been aware of their desire to make it back to Meghan’s hometown for a long time. Canada was “never the forever home,” a friend said to Katie Nicholl (who is also a correspondent for Vanity Fair). “The big plan, for Meghan at least, was always L.A.”
One source told Nicholl that Harry and Meghan started looking for a house in California shortly after their wedding, and that she always wanted to spend a significant amount of time in her home country. But it wasn’t until March 14 of this year that they made it official, leaving Vancouver Island in a top secret operation aboard actor Tyler Perry’s private jet.
The couple did take advantage of the relative privacy while they had it. Soon after arriving in L.A., Meghan reportedly took Harry for a drive around her old neighborhood, past the house where she was raised and the preschool she once attended. “The streets were empty,” a friend told the Times. “It would be two days before the paparazzi found out where they were and what they were doing so they got to see the city in a way they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. They loved being able to drive themselves around. It was very freeing for them but probably won’t happen again.”
Other than a few video calls and public announcements, the couple has kept mum about their future plans as they stay in Perry’s Beverly Hills mansion. Sources close to the couple told the Sunday Times Magazine the pair say they are hunting for a new house that will enable them to stay “away from the Hollywood fray” and give Archie Mountbatten-Windsor a “normal life.” The sources also added Harry and Meghan are also busy working on plans for their new charity foundation Archewell, adding that Meghan has no plans to return to acting, nor is she working on a series of children’s books.
While he is enjoying the California sunshine, some friends have said Harry is homesick. “It’s not been easy for Harry,” one of his friends told the Times. “He had a much more established life in England and he doesn’t really know anyone in LA. I imagine he might be feeling a bit of what [Meghan] felt over in the UK—lonely and directionless.”
Now, the roles have been reversed. Meghan is happy to be back in L.A. near her mother, Doria Ragland, and many of her close friends nearby, while Harry is finding the adjustment a challenge. However, he is reportedly excited about launching Archewell and starting afresh once lockdown has been lifted.
Friends have also spoken about why the couple made the dramatic decision to stand down from the Royal Family and leave England and how Meghan felt cut off and isolated living in Windsor. “She was convinced there was a conspiracy against her and so she basically put herself in self isolation when they moved to Frogmore,” said one. “I think she felt like an outsider from the start. This wasn’t the life she was used to and she wanted out.”
Meghan, a Los Angeles native, once wrote about being a California girl “who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach or a few avocados.” Friends says she missed her mother and her hometown terribly while she was living in the U.K. Though she was committed to making Windsor her home, she continued to feel isolated when the couple moved into Frogmore Cottage, shortly before Archie’s birth. Though Frogmore is close to Windsor Castle, the queen’s weekend home, it is in a very rural area, and Meghan felt cut off with no friends nearby.