Sitting forlornly on an oak table, three lonely tins of Meghan Markle’s $15 flower sprinkles are all that remain of what was once a lavishly promoted outpost of the Duchess’s Californian empire.
They look almost comically pathetic.
And yet, in this quiet upstairs room at Godmothers bookstore just three miles from the $14.6million Montecito mansion the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have just quit, they may be the most telling symbol yet of the collapse of the couple’s much-hyped American dream.
I was here late last year when the mood could not have been more different.
Then, amid a flurry of publicity and social media posts, Meghan announced that Godmothers would become the first ‘bricks and mortar’ shop to stock her As Ever brand of overpriced jams, herbal teas, candles and those infamous flower sprinkles.
An entire upstairs room had been devoted to Meghan’s wares with a sign proudly announcing it had been ‘curated by the Duchess herself’. The products were displayed on oak tables, surrounded by sprigs of eucalyptus, while the flower sprinkles were presented almost reverentially in a silver bowl.
It was, in miniature, the Meghan Markle brand made flesh: polished, carefully styled and designed for Instagram.
Today, it looks rather different.
The grand display has gone. The signage has disappeared. And the once-celebrated As Ever collection has vanished from the shelves, save for those three lonely tins.
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Meghan has traded the sun of California for the wetter shores of Britain after six years stateside
There is no sign of Harry’s excoriating memoir, Spare, either. I asked a shop assistant if there were any As Ever products available?
Her response was revealing.
‘I don’t think I know that company?’ she said. When I explained that it was Meghan Markle’s brand, she replied: ‘Oh, we don’t stock it any more.’
In Montecito, the sun-drenched enclave of yoga-clad, matcha-drinking multimillionaires, where Meghan and Harry were supposed to create their fabulous new life away from the restrictions of the royal court, it appears the couple have been as quickly forgotten as those sprinkles.
I travelled here, two hours’ north of Los Angeles, this week, barely a day after the Sussexes’ private jet touched down at Birmingham Airport marking their extraordinary return to Britain.
While Meghan and Harry once presented Montecito as the place where they would finally be free to build an empire on their own terms, the evidence on the ground tells a more prosaic story.
When the couple arrived in July 2020 there was a palpable sense of excitement. The pandemic was raging but I remember my phone lighting up with friends throughout Hollywood buzzing about having ‘genuine royals’ here on our doorstep. There was hushed talk about the bidding war between studios to ‘land’ them – a war eventually won by Netflix, which paid the Sussexes a staggering $100million over five years.
They were going to conquer America and, as one breathless executive at the streaming network told me, ‘probably the world’.
Meghan’s proud Instagram picture of her range last November, and the much smaller display now
How different things look now.
The paparazzi, which once gathered on the road outside their Chateau of Riven Rock mansion, have disappeared – much to the delight of one neighbour who gave her name only as ‘Susan’.
She told me: ‘Meghan and Harry never became part of the community. You’d see him out on his electric bike and she’d drive past in a Range Rover but it was always “swish” and you’d miss them.
‘I left a bottle of wine at their gate to welcome them and it was returned to me, unopened, the following day. I’m not sure they ever wanted to hang out with anyone who wasn’t a billionaire or famous or both.’ The mood in Montecito last week was one of relief. It is a feeling that I, as a journalist in LA, share knowing that, for the first time since they arrived in 2020, the constant drama of the Sussex circus is now 5,000 miles away.
As one friend who lives in Santa Barbara, the coastal city next door to Montecito, told me: ‘The buzz surrounding them when they arrived has long since disappeared. Americans love success and there has been precious little of that. Their victim narrative became tiresome. America, and particularly this little slice of California, fell out of love with them.’
For a couple who built so much of their lives around attention, perhaps the most wounding thing last week was how little anyone cared about their departure.
Author and long-time Montecito resident Robert Eringer was sipping a cocktail outside The Honor Bar, Montecito’s favourite watering hole.
He said: ‘Personally it matters not one iota to me whether they’re in Montecito or in Britain. I’m out and about in Montecito a lot and never saw them. I doubt anyone would have noticed they’d left if it hadn’t been reported in the news but, since it was, the general impression is, good riddance.’
The Sussexes paid about $14.65million for their Montecito mansion, which may fetch $40million now
One neighbour of the Royals said: ‘Meghan and Harry never became part of the community. You’d see him out on his electric bike and she’d drive past in a Range Rover but it was always “swish” and you’d miss them’
Another neighbour who declined to give his name said the Sussexes left ‘with a whimper, not a bang’.
‘There were no moving trucks, no parties, nothing at all. One day they were here and the next they were back in England.’
Wendy Foster runs an eponymous boutique, which became one of Meghan’s favourites. The duchess was often spotted carrying one of Wendy’s bags and meeting friends in Pierre LaFond, an upmarket deli next door, founded by Wendy’s late husband.
Pierre LaFond is a local landmark whose regulars include Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry and Gwyneth Paltrow. Wendy said: ‘I’ve been in Montecito for 50 years and we’re used to seeing everyone. Meghan came to my stores quite often and I must say she was always very polite.
‘I understand why she and Prince Harry want to go home. Over here they, and their children, don’t mean much in terms of status. In Britain their titles mean something. I’m sure they want to spend more time with his father.
‘I hope the children get to know their cousins. Their children have American accents so it makes sense that Harry in particular would want them to go to school in England. They’ll have far more social standing there than here. I wish them well.’
Their rapid departure – coming weeks after a summer holiday in Britain which their spokesman described as ‘wonderful’ – has left several lingering questions
What will happen to Harry’s polo ponies, Meghan’s famous rescue chickens and their 16-bathroom house, which, local estate agents say, could now be worth upwards of $40million?
David Sigman, the British general manager of the Santa Barbara Polo Club where Harry was often photographed said that, contrary to speculation, the Prince never owned his own ponies.
‘He played here up until about two or three years ago and then he left to play on the private fields of a local billionaire,’ Mr Sigman explained. ‘He never had his own polo ponies, he rented or borrowed them instead.’
His equine benefactor is believed to be Sarah Siegel-Magness, a billionaire heiress who worked as a Hollywood producer on films like the 2009 Oscar-winning Precious.
A source said: ‘Harry and Meghan became known for making friends with people who could help them. Sarah is one of those people. Rich and with lots of polo ponies.’
Cosmetics mogul Victoria Jackson is another of Meghan’s closest friends and co-owns Godmothers bookstore. There were reports the Bombardier Global Express luxury jet they returned home on belonged to Jackson but public records show the $12,000-an-hour aircraft is owned by charter company Planet Nine Private Air.
As for the couple’s sprawling 18,600 sq ft home, which they bought from a Russian businessman for $14.65 million in June 2020, local estate agents fully expect them to cash in. Montecito estate agent Daniel Encell said the property ‘could earn more than $100,000 a month in rent’ but would be worth about $40million should they sell.
‘It’s one of the best pieces of land on the Riven Rock estate,’ said Mr Encell. ‘It has mostly usable flat land while many nearby properties are on hillsides with less usable acreage. The house next to them is currently up for sale for $30 million with a smaller acreage and much less usable land so Harry and Meghan should be able to clear $40 million for theirs. Their name and being royalty has publicity value, which would bring in a lot more interest.’
As for Meghan’s famous rescue chickens, they remain at the estate in ‘Archie’s Chick Inn’ being cared for by staff which, the MoS has learned, includes at least one full-time housekeeper, ‘a small army of gardeners’ and a pool man.
One person familiar with the home who asked not to be named said: ‘People think they upped sticks and left but when you have an estate that size it requires upkeep. That’s an expensive undertaking. They still have a mortgage and property taxes.
‘The word on the street is they are going to sell off-market. The news of them moving back to England has been everywhere so local realtors [estate agents] are already getting calls from interested buyers. It will be quietly sold with no fuss or publicity. Meghan won’t want people snooping around in her closets.’
At Montecito’s bustling Country Mart, an assistant at a clothing store said: ‘I don’t think people care about the duke and duchess leaving. What has he done except learn how to surf?’
When I asked her if she expected a ‘Harry & Meghan open-top bus tour’ would swing by haunts frequented by the couple such as Lucky’s Steak House she laughed: ‘No-one cares. They came and they’ve gone. We’re indifferent.’
