The Telegraph sent their travel writer to ‘the secretive celebrity utopia of Montecito’

For anyone paying attention to royal gossip in the past five years, it’s been abundantly clear this whole time that the anger, rage and spite directed at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is often based in jealousy. A lot of people – including the Windsors – bet big on the Sussexes failing miserably. It was painful for the haters that not only did Prince Harry and Meghan land on their feet, but they actually have a beautiful life now. They live in an enormous mansion with eleventy billion bathrooms. They live in Montecito, one of the wealthiest enclaves in California. They have rich friends and celebrity friends. Harry plays polo at the local Santa Barbara club. They have money and success and a lot of people in Salt Island have never gotten over it.

Speaking of, the British media has shown a real obsession to stalk and harass the Sussexes IN California. British royal reporters openly admit to taking any excuse to fly to LA or wander around Montecito. There’s a fascination and obsession with not only mocking Prince Harry for living in Montecito, but also an obsession with the lifestyles of the wealthy people in California. So imagine my surprise when the Telegraph sent their travel reporter to Montecito to do a piece on what it’s like to vacation in Montecito. The Telegraph even published “Inside the secretive celebrity utopia of Montecito” within their “Royal Family” section:

It was a mild August evening and the ground was shaking. I was sitting on a wall outside a takeaway pizza spot and the cutlery leapt off the tables at a nearby restaurant. Smart phones and watches beeped with emergency alerts. A passing woman in a ballgown kept her footing, eyes forward as if on a catwalk. Earthquakes always feel a bit surreal, but more so in the most surreal town in America.

If you have heard of Montecito it is probably because it has the highest concentration of A-listers on the planet. Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex moved there in 2020 after their escape from the UK, but like a smoothie menu, there’s a celebrity for every occasion. There’s the detox one (Oprah Winfrey), the goopy one (Gwyneth Paltrow), the mood-lightener (Steve Martin) – all are crammed into a town with the population of St Ives.

I’m not particularly interested in celebrity culture, and less so in hunting them down, but I’m interested in the idea that they have all decided to congregate in one place. Why here?

[From The Telegraph]

Yes, “why here?” Answer: because the British media is obsessed with all things Sussex, especially their lives in California. The rest of the piece is just a traditional travel story, with recommendations for hotels and restaurants and some interesting historical details. This actually reminded me of Omid Scobie’s reporting, where Prince William has apparently mocked Harry and Meghan’s “oh so California self-importance” constantly for years. William’s jealous, obviously, but the rest of that family remains fascinated by California and American life in general. Oh well.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.