Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved out of their $14 million Montecito mansion without any fanfare.
After the two made the shocking decision to move back to the UK, a neighbor said the couple left “with a whimper, not a bang.”
“There were no moving trucks, no parties, nothing at all,” the neighbor told the Daily Mail in an article published Saturday. “One day they were here and the next they were back in England.”
Another Montecito resident, author Robert Eringer, shared the sentiment that Harry and Markle were never integrated into the wealthy community.
“I’m out and about in Montecito a lot and never saw them,” he told the outlet. “I doubt anyone would have noticed they’d left if it hadn’t been reported in the news.”
Another neighbor named Susan shared she’d only seen them in passing moments, like Harry riding his bike or Markle driving her Range Rover. She recalled the cold response she got after she tried to send them a welcoming gift when they moved to their estate in 2020.
“I left a bottle of wine at their gate to welcome them and it was returned to me, unopened, the following day,” she said. “I’m not sure they ever wanted to hang out with anyone who wasn’t a billionaire or famous or both.”
The outlet noted that any signs of Harry and Markle living in the neighborhood have largely been removed from local spots, including the bookstore Godmothers, which no longer carries of Markle’s As Ever products or Harry’s 2023 memoir, “Spare.”
Meanwhile, boutique owner Wendy Foster noted that Markle was always “very polite,” but could understand why they would want to go back to Harry’s home country with their children — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5.
“Over here they, and their children, don’t mean much in terms of status,” Foster said. “In Britain their titles mean something.”
Page Six spoke to the couple’s Montecito neighbors earlier this month, and one insider noted that they “couldn’t be more thrilled” with their decision to move back to the UK.
“Montecito is a very private, peaceful place, and I think a lot of people here will be happy to see things go back to being a little quieter,” the source said.
But another neighbor bluntly told us, “Good riddance!”
The insider claimed that a lot of people are “happy” to see the Sussexes go, as they allegedly “always asking for grandiose favors” from their friends and acquaintances “because of their titles,” and “never giving anything back” to them or “the actual Montecito community.”
They added, “The town is exhausted by them, the entitlement and the never-ending drama.”
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