Meghan is not an ‘asset’ to Montecito: Neighbour tells new documentary duchess ‘doesn’t really go out or get involved’ with elite Californian community – but ‘quite jolly’ Harry has ‘to a certain extent’

Prince Harry declared this week that he has no plans to return to the UK because his family are so happy in Montecito.

The Sussexes’ A-list neighbour Katy Perry has agreed to perform at the Invictus Games while friends Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are also among other supporters living in the celebrity-heavy enclave of California.

But it appears that not all locals are happy with the couple, with one claiming the Duchess of Sussex is more aloof than her husband, who is ‘jolly’ but not fully involved with the locals either.

Neighbours and locals in Montecito have spoken about the couple’s life there – and admit they don’t often see them, unless Harry is on his bike followed by his security team. There are also questions about their ‘elitist’ lifestyle.

Richard Mineards, one of their near-neighbours, has said they are not an ‘asset’ to the wealthy community.

‘I personally don’t think that Meghan is an asset to our community… She doesn’t really go out or get involved with the community, he said.

‘Harry has to a certain extent, because he’s quite jolly…but Meghan doesn’t seem to get seen anywhere…. And you don’t see him either.’ 

Mr Mineards was speaking to a new German documentary, called ‘Harry: The Lost Prince’.

There are also reports that they are planning to send Archie and Lilibet to a ‘prestigious’ private school, which will test how much they will get involved with their community. 

Meghan Markle celebrated her 42nd birthday at local Italian Tre Lune (pictured last August), Locals say they don’t often see them

Meghan and Harry share this desk and mainly work from home. The Duke of Sussex is seen mucking around outside the window while working from home on his wife’s 40th birthday in 2021. One neighbour has claimed that she is not an asset to the community

Prince Harry loves a solo bike ride in his spare time – but followed by his security team, neighbours have said

The Duke of Sussex isn’t seen out often, unless walking the dog or going on the school run

Royal commentator Duncan Larcombe said: ‘They are the public couple that claim to crave privacy and that I suppose would involve the local community. But when you have young children, they all mix with other young children at schools or nurseries’.

He told the Mirror: ‘Are they going to play the role of just another parent?’

Earlier this year MailOnline revealed how Prince Harry spends his time pootling on his bike followed a security team in a Range Rover and walks his dog alone on the beach when not in the home office he shares with Meghan Markle or doing his daily meditations.

The Duke of Sussex is rumoured to have made overtures via friends and intermediaries about a return to the royal fold – but only if he receives an apology from his older brother.

However, insiders have pushed back on going back to royal duties – and shared details of his enviable and very quiet life in California’s Montecito with Meghan and their two children.

When away from his computer Harry speaks with staff and walks his garden enjoying the birds sandwiched between taking Archie to and from school. There is a long meditation in his diary each day – and often a workout with a personal trainer. 

One declared: ‘They keep themselves to themselves. I haven’t seen Harry around much. Normally when you see him around here, he’s walking his Labrador on the beach or on his bicycle followed by his security in a Range Rover’. 

Outside the confines of their mansion, he enjoys a solo bike ride on his own with his bodyguards following behind or alongside in their SUV – part of the biggest security team in the area, one local said.

There are mixed reports about his happiness. One ally recently said Harry is ‘doing great’ – but others claim he has become an ‘angry boy’ who is ‘more and more isolated in California’.

Meghan appears to stick to a small and loyal group of friends. She is said to have joined a local mahjong group, stops to speak to locals in the street or shops and has bonded with other celeb-locals.

Harry puts a 30-40-minute meditation in his diary each day to make sure it happens

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s $14.7million home in Santa Barbara, California, is seen above 

The Sussexes do venture out together from time to time. They enjoy date nights together at the local steakhouse named Lucky’s or pop out for an Italian meal at Tre Lune where a margherita pizza is $24 and spaghetti and meatballs is $35.

Harry and Meghan have been accused of hypocrisy while enjoying an ‘elitist’ lifestyle in the United States in the new German documentary, released earlier this week.

‘Harry: The Lost Prince’ includes damning criticism of the couple’s attempts to build a new life for themselves in the US as charity activists and campaigners since leaving the Royal family. 

The programme was critical of their much-publicised visits to poverty-stricken countries such as Nigeria and Colombia sits uneasily with Meghan’s love of expensive designer clothes. 

One stinging voice in the documentary was former soldier Ben McBean, who lost his left arm and had his right leg amputated above the knee after being seriously injured by a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2008. 

McBean who shared a flight home from Afghanistan with Harry, did not hold back in criticising the prince over his revelations about his family in his bombshell memoir Spare and in his Netflix show. 

The veteran soldier says: ‘I just thought, with him kind of whinging about his family and he was saying something about his brother pushing him over or something like that, I was just like, “Mate, just leave it out”.

‘You and your brother had a little fisticuffs…but family’s family, you know. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle suffered a new blow after a German documentary accused the couple of hypocrisy while enjoying an ‘elitist’ lifestyle in the United States

The bombshell documentary, screened in Germany, runs a fine-toothed comb through Harry and Meghan’s work with their charity the Archewell Foundation

‘If one of my friends fell out with his partner and started posting things on social media and saying my ex is this and that, I’d have told him to shut up as well.’ 

The German documentary also pointed the finger at Harry and Meghan for trading off their former Royal roles by seeking to make money to support their lifestyle. 

It also pours scorn on them for ‘failing’ to mix with wealthy neighbours in the celebrity enclave of Montecito of California, where they have made their home with children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. 

The couple did face harsh criticism over ‘Megxit’ in some sections of the media in Germany when they announced their decision to step back as ‘senior members’ of the British Royal family in January 2020. 

Their reputations soared, however, in Germany in September last year when they attended the Invictus games, featuring competing injured servicemen and women, in Dusseldorf.

But the new documentary – the first TV analysis of the couple in Germany since ‘Megxit’ – questions the cost of the Dusseldorf games by claiming they were funded by a €40million donation from Germany’s Ministry of Defence. 

The film is titled ‘Harry: The Lost Prince’ and includes expert commentary on the allegations the Duke of Sussex made against his family in his book Spare 

The programme takes a dig at the couple by detailing how their much-publicised visits to poverty-stricken countries such as Nigeria and Colombia sits uneasily with Meghan’s love of expensive designer clothes. This picture was taken during the couple’s visit to Bogota in August this year 

Royal reporter Russell Myers says on the show: ‘If you’re going to places like Nigeria, like Colombia, which have huge socio-economic problems, some of the world’s poorest communities in these countries, and you’re turning up wearing tens of thousands of pounds worth of designer clothes – it really doesn’t send the right message.’ 

Jack Royston from the podcast The Royal Report also picked up on the couple’s desire to be ‘half in and half out’ of the Royal family which was dismissed by the late Queen. 

He says: ‘If you have a situation where Harry and Meghan are earning huge amounts of money in Hollywood trading off their reputations, but then they’re also bolstering their reputations by working for the Queen – they’re able to present themselves on the world stage as being these working members of the royal family who are also available for a price.

‘That is a huge compromise to demand off the monarchy. If they were to be perceived to be promoting their commercial projects while representing the Queen, then that’s also… starting to border on corruption there because they should never be using the monarchy as a platform.’ 

Mr Royston added: ‘The particular way in which Harry and Meghan crashed out of the Royal Family, firing hand grenades at Harry’s relatives, caused their reputation to be significantly damaged. 

‘And that has had a major impact on their capacity to make the world a better place because a lot of people just aren’t listening to them at all!’ 

He also pointed out the huge cost of the Invictus games with the massive contribution by the German taxpayer and the expectation that public funds in the UK will have to support the games which are booked to be held in Birmingham in 2027.

Describing it as ‘a huge amount of money and obviously falling on the taxpayer’, he said: ‘It’s going to be a big issue at the 2027 games which is in Birmingham, as Birmingham recently was driven to the verge of bankruptcy.’ 

Harry and Meghan attended the 2023 Invictus Games – a paralympic tournament for wounded and injured veterans – that were held in Dusseldorf, Germany 

Royston also refers to Harry and Meghan as now being ‘part of an elite in America’, leading lives which separate them even further from the Royal family. 

German journalist Dr Ulrike Grunewald, who directed the documentary, says: ‘What surprised me most was how ineffectively Harry and Meghan’s foundation is organised. 

‘The amount of donations has fallen drastically in one year: from $13million in 2021 to $2million in 2022. According to their own documents, Harry and Meghan only work one hour a week for the Archewell Foundation.’ 

Dai Davies, a former Head of Royal Protection and a Divisional Commander in the Metropolitan Police, also criticises Harry, accusing him of making others a target by detailing in his book how many Taliban fighters he had killed in his Apache helicopter.

Davies says: ‘In his book, Spare, for him to disclose, as he did, that he had killed a number of Taliban was, in my opinion, totally unwise, because I was aware, as indeed he was, that the Taliban and various groups had put a price on his head.

 ‘And really, I think that price still remains, which could form a basis for him saying, well, I need security. 

‘If you open your big mouth, as he has collectively, that book, not just on that, but given away all kinds of secrets, then it’s not surprising that some people might regard you as a potential target.’ 

Davies also accuses Harry of failing to mix much with ordinary people on what he describes as their ‘carefully orchestrated’ international trips. 

He says: ‘In Colombia, although there are very rich people there, the vast majority, 85 per cent or 90 per cent, are very poor.

‘And what I’ve noticed of these tours, he mixes with the upper classes. He doesn’t really, apart from carefree orchestrated areas where he mixes with so-called the ‘normal people’ – well they’re not. 

‘These are carefully orchestrated campaigns as far as I can see… I look quite dispassionately at the evidence and the evidence I’ve seen is, it’s all about Harry and Meghan.   

‘It’s very little to do with an actual alleged rationale for going there.’