Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved to Montecito in June 2020 after spending time living at the home of their close friend – and Princess Lilibet's godfather – Tyler Perry.
The couple had previously resided on Vancouver Island in Canada for almost six months after taking an initial six-week family holiday following their return from their first tour to South Africa with Prince Archie in the Autumn of 2019.
Despite their idyllic surroundings, one of the couple's neighbours has explained he was snubbed when he came over to introduce himself for the first time.
Navy veteran Frank McGinity, 88, revealed he had called on Harry and Meghan at their 15-bedroom Tuscan-style villa in Montecito to introduce himself, welcome the couple to the neighbourhood and offer to lend them some movies on the history of the area.
He recounted the encounter with the couple's security team in a new chapter of his memoir Get Off Your Street, in which he detailed the residents' experience with the mudslides that devastated the area only a few years before the Sussexes moved in.
McGinity expressed his surprise at learning Meghan and Harry had decided to move in, noting the Riven Rock Estate on which they set up their new Californian home usually attracts much older buyers and renters.
He said: "I have a big house next to Harry and Meghan's property – [they] live on old McCormick property and I went up to their gate with the films on a CD, but they weren't interested.
"The gate guy turned me away and wouldn't take the film, just saying 'they're not interested'. I was trying to be neighbourly. If they were interested in the neighbourhood I've got a lot of information."
The 88-year-old veteran told the Montecito Journal: "We don't see them very much around here. It's surprising they came here. People are typically older. It's where the elephants come to die."
In his book, McGinity recounted the impact of the mudslides on the small enclave that sits halfway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
He said his own home was heavily damaged in the devastating natural disaster that left 23 people across Southern California dead. Harry and Meghan's current home was left looking like a "sea of mud or a moonscape".
McGinity wrote: "We live in Riven Rock, a neighbourhood of 34 homes surrounded by a thick stone wall surrounding 87 acres. This is where Stanley McCormick lived for 40 years…
"But half of this beautiful estate, which Stanley created, turned to a sea of mud on January 9th, 2018. Four homes were completely destroyed. Our home took a big hit.
"The mud entered the rear of the house and disseminated our office, entry hall, and back bedroom. There were boulders so large in the rooms, our contractor had to chisel them apart in order to remove them.
"I found a TV from the office and a mattress near our front gate – 500 feet away. Can you imagine the fury of that mudslide?"
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