Meghan Markle and Prince Harry set up new permanent home in Santa Barbara

Duke and Duchess of Sussex hope their privacy will be ‘respected’ for both themselves and their neighbours, spokesperson says

(AFP via Getty Images)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have set up a permanent home for themselves and their son Archie in Santa Barbara, California.

The couple, who formally stepped down as senior members of the royal family on 31 March this year, have been living in Los Angeles for several months, having previously been based in Canada.

They have since moved to Santa Barbara, which is situated over 100 miles north-west of Los Angeles.

The couple relocated to the property last month, their spokesperson confirmed to The Independent.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into their family home in July of this year,” the spokesperson said.

“They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbours, as well as for them as a family.”

Other celebrities with homes in Santa Barbara include actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow, Star Trek star Patrick Stewart and media guru Oprah Winfrey, who has a close relationship with the Sussex family.

Meghan is a native Californian, having grown up in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday 11 August, an unofficial biography about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, titled Finding Freedom, was published.

The book was written by royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand and documents anecdotes from the couple’s lives between 2016 and 2020.

A spokesperson for the duke and duchess stated that the couple had no involvement in the writing of the book, outlining that the publication “is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting”.

The book details the ups and downs from throughout Meghan and Harry’s relationship, from the early days of their courtship to their announcement earlier this year that they wished to step down as senior working members of the royal family.

To read more about what we discovered reading Finding Freedom from start to finish, you can read our liveblog here.

Finding Freedom is out in hardback now and available to buy here.