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Culture & Living
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have a new $18 million crash pad, thanks to Oprah
The couple is reportedly staying at Tyler Perry’s mansion in Beverly Hills while the Madea creator is working in Atlanta—thanks to an introduction from Oprah
This week, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are living proof that it really pays off to be a pal of Oprah Winfrey. On Wednesday, a video they posted for Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birthday had a tiny clue to the gifts he’s already gotten from Oprah. A sticker on the book Duck, Rabbit seemed to reveal that, like Mindy Kaling’s daughter, he was the recipient of a fanciful bookcase on the occasion of his birth. On Friday, the Daily Mail reported that Meghan, Harry, and Archie have temporarily moved into the Beverly Hills estate belonging to Tyler Perry, a connection the couple made through—you guessed it—Oprah.
An insider bragged a bit about the couple’s security measures, even as they seemingly spilled the beans. “Meghan and Harry have been extremely cautious to keep their base in LA under wraps,” the friend of the couple’s told the Mail. “'Beverly Ridge has its own guarded gate and Tyler's property has a gate of its own which is watched by their security team. Beverly Ridge is an excellent place to keep out of view. The neighbours are mostly old money and mega-rich business types rather than show business gossips.”
According to the tabloid, the mansion is worth about $18 million and has 12 bedrooms. Page Six reports that the couple is not renting the mansion, but merely staying there as his guests while Perry works to restart production at his Atlanta studio. Representatives for the Sussexes declined to comment.
Perry has previously shared photographs of the house, which he built in 2004, and has even given TMZ’s Objectified series a little house tour. The interiors don’t really match up with Meghan’s more bohemian and light-filled sense of style, but a photo of Obama at the house in 2015 makes it seem like Harry might feel right at home in the mansion’s stately, England-inspired library filled floor-to-ceiling with leather-bound volumes.
Though Perry, reportedly worth about $600 million due to the success of his Madea series and other ventures, has not before been photographed with Meghan and Harry, he has indicated his admiration for the duchess in the past. In a January interview with the website Level, he mentioned Meghan’s headline-grabbing interview with Tom Bradby in South Africa.
“Remember when Meghan Markle did that interview?” he asked. “She said, ‘Thanks for asking if I’m okay. Because no one ever asks me that.’ I felt her when she said that.... People toss it out. ‘How are you doing?’ But not many people really mean it.”
This article originally appeared in Vanityfair.com
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