‘People are excited about reading it’: Harry and Meghan’s neighbours await release of prince’s book
In Montecito, the super wealthy enclave in California which Prince Harry and Meghan have made their adopted home, the local bookshop has put in a big order for copies of his autobiography.
“I was excited when I found out it was coming,” says Mary Sheldon, part-owner of Tecolote bookshop. “I called my publisher and told him to put in an order, it’s one of the books we order by the carton, people are definitely excited about reading it here.”
Tecolote has been a fixture in Montecito for almost a century, now located in the “upper village” which is the focal point for community life, with its post office, estate agent and grocery shop.
Montecito is a two-hour drive up the coast from Los Angeles, nestled between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
Mary Sheldon, part-owner of Tecolote bookshop
For decades now, celebrities have migrated here from Hollywood, craving the slower pace of life and privacy it offers.
Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ellen DeGeneres all have multi-million dollar estates in the narrow lanes which wind up the hillside. Harry and Meghan’s $15m home is considered mid-range for the area.
“We’re used to having celebrities, but Harry and Meghan are something different,” says Ms Sheldon. “I think people are interested in the book because of the family dynamics and comparing the Royal Family to their family.
“They’re not really interested in the politics of it.”
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At the coffee shop, the smell of eucalyptus trees wafts through the patio where people are eating breakfast.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are rarely seen out in public here these days and there is less of feverish interest in their Netflix documentary series and various media interviews than in the UK.
“My friends turn their nose up at it all,” one woman, a former TV executive living in Montecito, tells me.
“They may have been paid $100m by Netflix but they have all their production staff to pay and their company, so an element of all this will be them thinking ‘what can we sell’.”
Prince Harry has done interviews with two major US TV channels to promote his book.
Montecito is two hours away from Los Angeles
He has been questioned about why he is reigniting a war with the Royal Family when he and Meghan claim to have moved to this exclusive corner of California to escape the spotlight.
He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “Every single time I’ve tried to do this privately there have been briefing and leakings. Our family motto is ‘never complain, never explain’. It’s just a motto it doesn’t really hold.”
Polls for American news organisations have indicated there is more sympathy for Harry and Meghan’s plight with the US public than the UK.
“I certainly think there are most positive reactions in the states to the United Kingdom,” says Skylar Baker-Jordan, an American media commentator.
Skylar Baker-Jordan
“I think Americans look at Prince Harry and see a vulnerable young man who is being emotionally honest – perhaps for the first time in his life – whereas the British tend to see a spoiled rich kid with every privilege life can afford moaning about the gilded cage he’s found himself in.”
Prince Harry is already 5,000 miles from home but the more he reveals about the inner trauma and trials of the institution he was once part of, the further away he grows from his family.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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