Celebrity

Everything We Know About Meghan Markle & Prince Harry's California Home

The couple gave Oprah a tour and showed her “Archie’s Chick Inn” for rescued chickens.

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry dropped many revelations about their time as royals in their revealing Oprah Winfrey interview, which aired on March 7, but perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Oprah's special was seeing how the couple lives now. Although the interview was filmed at the home of Winfrey's neighbor, who also just so happens to be her longtime friend Gayle King, Meghan and Harry gave Winfrey a tour of their California home in Montecito, giving fans a rare look into their new private abode.

Following their shocking exit from the royal family in January 2020, the couple split their time between Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada, before relocating to the United States permanently in July 2020. As reported in Variety, the couple purchased a sprawling 7.4 acre, $14.65 million estate in Montecito, the posh, picturesque Santa Barbara County community about 100 miles north of L.A. The couple now has many A-list neighbors, including Ariana Grande, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ellen DeGeneres, and even Winfrey.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into their family home in July of this year," a rep for the couple told PEOPLE after the news was announced in 2020. "They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbors, as well as for them as a family."

The estate measures at a whopping 19,000 square feet, according to Variety, with the main house boasting a huge array of amenities, including a library, gym, arcade, game room, two saunas, and an elevator to connect it all. There's also a detached guesthouse with two bedrooms and bathrooms. Altogether, the property has nine bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, meaning there's enough space for the couple to adopt nearly all of us.

The couple's son Archie also has many perks. As revealed during the CBS interview, Meghan and Harry have a huge backyard with an adorable chicken coop called "Archie's Chick Inn," which houses chickens that they recently rescued from a factory farm. The backyard, Variety noted, also has a full-size tennis court, built-in playground, swimming pool, and a "tea house," perfectly nodding to Harry's British heritage. And just like his former English palace homes, the grounds comprise of rose gardens and other rare trees that the outlet speculates "cost a small fortune to maintain." Archie and his soon-to-be-born sister will never get bored.

In fact, spending time outdoors and having space "to go on walks" with Archie happens to be Harry's favorite thing about moving to the U.S. "The highlight for me is sticking him on the back of the bicycle in his little baby seat and taking him on bike rides is something which I never was able to do when I was young," he told Winfrey. "I can see him on the back, and he's got his arms out, chatting: 'Palm tree?' House?'"

While they didn't take viewers inside their main home, they have shared small glimpses of their interior in the past. During the fall of 2020, both Meghan and Harry filmed messages from their living room, showing off their California-inspired, casual-luxe design. The couple highlighted the home's more vintage features, like their stone fireplace, with much fresher decorations, like an off-white couch with black-and-white geometric pillows, and three intricate birds nest portraits. They also have a stack of coffee table books, which includes Women: National Geographic Image Collection and The Black Godfather, both serving as a reminder of their values and interests.

Their 2020 Christmas card also showed the family in Archie's life-sized playhouse, or "children's cottage," alongside their beautiful rescue dogs, as photographed by Meghan's mother Doria Ragland. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may no longer be working members of the royal family, but they're certainly living like it.