Prince Harry, Meghan Markle snubbed elderly neighbour's welcome

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle allegedly rebuffed a navy veteran's act of kindness. The elderly neighbour claimed they snubbed his attempt to make them feel welcome when they moved into the Montecito neighborhood in Santa Barbara, California in 2020.

US Navy veteran Frank McGinity recounted his brusque encounter with the couple's security team in a new chapter of his memoir "Get Off Your Street." In the book, he detailed the residents' experience with the mudslides that hit the area a few years before the couple moved into their property.

The 88-year-old shared that he was surprised when he learned that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided to move there as the Riven Rock Estate where they now live usually attracts much older buyers and renters. He then decided to gift them with some videos he had made about the mudslides. But he did not even make it past security.

"I have a big house next to Harry and Meghan's property and I live in the guest house while renting the main house out on Airbnb. Harry and Meghan live on old McCormick property and I went up to their gate with the films on a CD, but they weren't interested," McGinity shared as reported in the Montecito Journal.

He added, "The gate guy turned me away and wouldn't take the film, just saying 'they're not interested.' I was trying to be neighborly. If they were interested in the neighbourhood I've got a lot of information."

The fourth and last updated edition of "Get Off Your Street" covers the veteran's "travels over the last 25 years. He said of his personal travelogue, "Most of the chapters are based on articles I have published in the Montecito Journal, Noozhawk, and the Santa Barbara News-Press. I have added one last chapter 'Treading Through a Sea of Mud' describing the devastating mudslides in Montecito in January 2018."

He said the Sussexes' home then was left looking like a "sea of mud or a moonscape" after the mudslide on Jan. 9, 2018. He shared that his house was also heavily damaged when the "mud entered the rear of the house and disseminated" the office, entry hall, and back bedroom. He said, "There were boulders so large in the rooms, our contractor had to chisel them apart in order to remove them."

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocated to Montecito in June 2020 after they left their royal duties in the U.K. As revealed in their "Harry & Meghan" Netflix series, they initially stayed in Vancouver, Canada for nearly six months.

Then, they relocated to California before the airspace closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The couple stayed at Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles where they lived for months before they could find their own home. The director/actor even offered them security after King Charles III stripped the couple of their security after Megxit.

It is said that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle mostly keep a low profile in Montecito. The Duchess of Sussex was recently seen trying to go incognito as she visited the local's farmer's market and bought flowers.

Likewise, she and the Duke of Sussex were seen enjoying a Fourth of July parade in the neighbourhood with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. McGinity said of the Sussexes, "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."

Aside from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, other A-list names who live in the Montecito area include Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, Katy Perry with Orlando Bloom, Rob Lowe, and Gwyneth Paltrow, to name a few.