Despite hints from the new president that he intends to follow up on the Duke’s visa, it’s said that the Sussexes won’t be moving away from Montecito ‘without a fight’

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle apparently have ‘no plans’ to leave the USA

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Despite a new president with whom they don’t exactly see eye to eye, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle plan on remaining firmly in the United States – and have a team of excellent lawyers primed to make sure they’re allowed to do so, say a few well-placed royal sources.

Harry and Meghan have lived in the moneyed, coastal enclave of Montecito since 2020, with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ariana Grande as neighbours. Since Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, however, things have been looking a little different in California – with the liberal elite (the Sussexes among them) wondering exactly where this new Republican era may leave them.

Harry and Meghan’s good friend Ellen DeGeneres has upped sticks and moved to the Cotswolds – with sources telling TMZ that the pair were ‘very disillusioned’ with Trump’s win, and decided to ‘get the hell out’ of the country immediately afterwards. Just last week, DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, were spotted hobnobbing with the locals at The Farmer’s Dog, Jeremy Clarkson’s pub just outside Burford; they’re rumoured to have found a house they love nearby.

Harry and Meghan have lived on this gated estate in Montecito since 2020

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Some have wondered whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will follow in their wake, given that they once called that part of the English countryside home themselves. The couple has also suggested in the past that their values don’t align with those of the new president – and Trump has made no secret of the fact that the feeling is mutual. However, a few sources close to the Sussexes have firmly denied that Harry and Meghan will be going anywhere.

‘There are no plans to move from the US,’ the insider told The Express, with another adding: ‘Harry and Meghan feel at home in California, and they won’t be leaving there without a fight. They have a very good legal team, and they have a lot of support behind them to ensure that they will be able to remain in the United States.’ That does not, however, mean that Trump won’t make trouble for the couple.

Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, took a dim view of Prince Harry’s autobiography

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At the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington earlier this year, Trump warned Harry that he would be ‘on his own’ should he be voted into office once more. ‘I wouldn’t protect him,’ he added. ‘He betrayed the Queen. He would be on his own if it was down to me.’ Trump was referencing the negative remarks Prince Harry made about the royal family in his memoir, Spare, of which he is said to have taken a dim view. The president called Queen Elizabeth an ‘incredible lady’ after his state visit to the UK in 2019, adding: ‘I feel I know her so well, and she certainly knows me very well right now, but we have a very good relationship also with the United Kingdom.’ When Piers Morgan asked him in an interview about the trip, he revealed: ‘Well, I don’t want to speak for her, but I can tell you I liked her… I liked her a lot.’

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Trump has also taken issue with other parts of Harry’s autobiography, in which the Prince admits to trying cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms. ‘I’d experimented with them over the years, for fun, but now I’d begun to use them therapeutically,’ he writes of psychedelics, adding of cocaine: ‘It wasn’t much fun, and it didn’t make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal.’

Prince Harry has been investigated over his visa, but the case was closed earlier this year

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The revelations created some tension over Harry’s US visa, and resulted in a court case. The lawsuit brought by The Heritage Foundation was terminated after a secret ruling in September, but Trump was none too happy about the result. Of the Bidens’ approach to team Sussex, he said: ‘I think they have been too gracious to him after what he has done.’ Whether Trump could, or would, make trouble for the Sussexes remains to be seen. ‘The powers of the president are very formidable,’ one renowned American lecturer on US constitutional history told The Telegraph, adding that he is ‘sure Trump will utilise them’ – in perhaps unpredictable ways, such as reopening the visa investigation. A US journalist speculated to the same paper that Harry’s ‘life could get very unpleasant should Trump decide he wants to follow through with this.’

However, Harry and Meghan are said to remain confident that the new president won’t be able to take action. ‘Harry and Meghan are not fazed by the comments Trump made because they believe they have done everything correctly,’ the same source told The Express. ‘Meghan is a US citizen, and Archie has just started a new school, so to leave the place they call home isn’t even an option.’ For now, the prognosis is clear: Team Sussex will, for as long as possible, remain based in Montecito.