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It would be heartbreaking to see 29 million dollars go up in smoke, but that is how much money is at risk if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Montecito mansion falls victim to the growing Southern California wildfires. A rep for the company that controls the power in the couple's area told The Telegraph that shutting it off for safety reasons was a possibility due to "a Red Flag Warning and increased risk of wildfires." And while the implications are certainly scary given the images that we've seen coming out of Los Angeles, the outlet cited the royals' compound as existing in a "high fire risk" area, making the sudden dramatic inconvenience a known factor.
The most imminent worry for the parents of Archie and Lilibet is the still-raging Palisades Fire that began in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on January 7, 2025. According to KTLA, it has since consumed over 17,000 acres of land and destroyed 1,000 structures with estimated damages currently looking to be in the tens of billions of dollars. While the Palisades Fire is still a ways away from the post-royal couple, and money will certainly not be an issue for Harry, there are worries about new fires popping up in Montecito or Santa Barbara given the weather conditions surrounding the Red Flag Warning. With all the uncertainty, we hope the West Coast transplants have enough bags to pack up the essentials from their nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom manor.
In case of emergency, where would they go?
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have only been living in their Montecito compound for four years, but now, like the many not-royally connected people facing displacement from the wildfires, the question becomes — if they have to evacuate, where would they go? It's hard to look past the highly public decision Harry and Meghan made to step down from their royal duties and move across the ocean to Los Angeles, make roots in the celebrity-rich enclave of Montecito (with neighbors like Oprah and Gwyneth Paltrow), and now face the possibility of their new home, and everything they've worked to build here, burning to the ground.
And while Harper's Bazaar reported that the two have "no regrets" and are proud of their decision to leave the royal life, we can't help but be tempted to wonder if Meghan and Harry might move back to Buckingham Palace if a wildfire burns away their American dream. Hey, wouldn't be the first time someone was chewed up and spit out for following a dream to Southern California ... Just kidding, Harry and Meghan's lucrative Netflix deal is still in place, so who knows? Maybe these turbulent times are actually the perfect, imperfect conditions for another documentary.
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English (US) ·