Harry and Meghan live like billionaires when they are not

Harry and Meghan must have had big plans to live a glamorous, high-spending life of sheer luxury on the back of their fame as perhaps the best known couple on the planet. And apparently Meghan thought that Harry was genuinely rich when he was not. She must have had big aspirations from the get go. She probably visualised the billionaire lifestyle in California and 'by George' they live in a house that signals billionaire lifestyle but the upkeep of it is crippling them financially. I think it is said that the overall costs of the house annually are around $4m including security. It is a superb home but a home that is the manifestation of Meghan's unsustainable dream. She can't make that dream a reality.

One reason is that they are not as popular as they'd like to be. Many people actually dislike them. And I think the problem begins with Meghan. She is the driving force. She is ambitious. Sometimes I think she planned the whole thing including catching Harry the prince from years ago. 

Harry is unambitious. He'd be much happier in Africa working in a children's charity. At the sharp end. Using his hands not his brain. I feel pretty sure that he is in the wrong place, living the wrong life. He is living her life.

She wanted to have the billionaire lifestyle married to the most eligible prince in the world. Beware what you wish for as the saying goes.

Meghan can't get her 'For Ever' business off the ground properly. She can't scale it up. There was a surge of interest at the beginning from customers who wanted a bit of the action. To keep one of her jams on the mantlepiece but that interest has faded. In the meantime Meghan produced way too much stock which she can't sell. Apparently $5m worth.

And Harry cranked up enormous costs risks in his litigation against the newspapers for alleged hacking. Fortunately he won that claim so he is no longer at risk of paying the other side's costs in the millions of pounds. But litigation is stressful and I'd bet that it was a source of discussion or even argument in the Harry household for a long time because of the expense of it. It was a very high risk process for Harry and it is Meghan who I feel takes care of the money side of things. She takes the burden of ensuring that the family stays afloat financially. That's what it looks like.

This difference between the two on ambition and issues of money, earning it and controlling expenses will create stresses. It may even lead to a break up. 

Yes, Harry and Meghan live like billionaires without sufficient income. The home they bought was owned by a Russian billionaire. Enough said. It takes a billionaire to maintain that kind of property without stress. I can foresee them selling the home in the not to distant future. And Harry spending more time in the UK. He is in the wrong place. He really is. The lifestyle he lives is one created primarily by Meghan. It is what she wanted for herself. He is an accessory to that lifestyle.

That is not to say that they don't love each other. They do I am sure but the background attitude from Meghan is stressing the family. Ambition is stressful. He wants the quiet life in an African village!

Here is some more on the home:

🏡 Who owned the house before Harry and Meghan?

The property — known as The Chateau or The Chateau of Riven Rock — was previously owned by Sergey Grishin, a Russian businessman who purchased it in 2009 for $25.3 million.

Multiple reputable sources identify him as a Russian billionaire and oligarch, sometimes nicknamed the “Scarface Oligarch” because he once owned another California mansion used in the 1983 Scarface film.

💰 Was he a billionaire?

Yes. Grishin was widely reported as a billionaire due to his role in Russia’s banking sector and his involvement in large‑scale financial schemes. Investigations linked him to the so‑called “Global Laundromat” — a massive movement of Russian funds into Western banks — which reportedly involved tens of billions of dollars.

📉 Did he sell at a loss?

Yes. Grishin bought the estate for $25.3 million in 2009 and sold it to Harry and Meghan in 2020 for $14.7 million, taking a substantial loss.

🧭 Summary

• Previous owner: Sergey Grishin

• Background: Russian oligarch / billionaire

• Purchase price (2009): $25.3M

• Sale price to Harry & Meghan (2020): $14.7M

• Billionaire status: Yes, widely reported as such

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are often written at breakneck speed, sometimes using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

King Charles bans cats from his Sandringham estate

NEWS AND OPINION: The King owns a large estate around Sandringham which is in the south-east of England, near the Norfolk coast. Incidentally, the Royal family and the UK have far too many properties and it is a bit of an insult to the ordinary citizen in tough times to see the Royal family with so many palaces. Anyway that's another topic and I'll stick to this one which is that on the Sandringham estate there are houses which the King rents out to 'ordinary' people.

King Charles bans cats from his Sandringham estate. Image: MikeB

And I'm told that in all of these properties domestic cats are banned. He is one of those landlords that bans pet cats from his properties. I think the policy is short-sighted and unfair but apparently the rule came into play when his mother was the Queen, Elizabeth II, and it said that she might have been allergic to cats and preferred dogs. We know that she loved corgis. Dogs are allowed ('considered') on a house by house basis.

Perhaps the primary reason for this ban on domestic cats in these properties is that on the Sandringham estate they like to shoot birds. Another objectionable pastime as far as I am concerned. It's a game bird shooting estate of 20,000 acres.

And the Queen, it is said, was frightened that a pet cat would kill game bird chicks and upset the business. If that is true, it's probable that the gamekeepers advised her to ban cats from these properties to avoid any disruption to the business. 

Game bird shooting is big business in the UK but fraught, as far as I am concerned, with ethical problems and conservation issues. It also fraught with animal welfare and animal cruelty issues. 

The whole thing should be shut down but the Royal family is very much steeped in old-fashioned ways in the UK and they stick to those traditions religiously with little desire to modernise although King Charles has expressed a desire to slim down the Royal family which would be welcome to many people.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Map showing location:

British Royalty Keeping Cats

With it being the Queens's 60th wedding anniversary and with the massive jubilee celebrations taking place in the UK I thought I would find out if I could add the domestic cat into the mix and see whether there are any royals who keep cats and if so what type of cat.

By the way, I'm going down to the Thames tomorrow to have a look at the flotilla of boats accompanying the "Royal Barge" that cost a million quid - we can't afford it, I say.

I came to a rapid conclusion that the royals of Britain are dog people. That probably would not surprise most visitors who read this (very few!). The royals are sort of upper class (actually very upper class), hunting, shooting, fishing sorts and with that kind of background you are much more likely to prefer dogs. You know...the outdoor life, country sports lifestyle with hunting dogs etc.

The Queen is famous for her Corgis and that is about all I know about the Queens's animal preferences other than her love of horse racing. She kept or still keeps some racing horses.

One person who is part of the royal family but not at the heart of it is HRH Princess Michael of Kent. She has various talents including writing and interior design. She's a cat person.

People say that she is pushy and unpleasant. I don't know her but anyone who likes cats can't be unpleasant!

She keeps cats (plural). I have seen a picture on her website with two cats. One appears to be a rich dark brown/black cat  (a moggie it seems) with a studded collar and the other is a Siamese as far as I can tell from the picture. You can see a photo on this page.

Blue Persian cat of 1901 the kind Queen Victoria cared for.
The cat is Lady Marcus Beresford's blue Persian "Gentian Landor".

Even royals from the past usually kept dogs it seems. For example, Wallis Simpson who married King Edward VIII liked dogs. Although she owned a diamond bracelet of a panther worth £4.5 million ($7 million) in modern money.

If we go back a bit further we discover that Queen Victoria cared for two blue Persian cats. Victoria was the Queen from 1837 until her death in 1901. This was the era of the beginning of the cat fancy. Persian cats were one of the relatively few cat breeds of that time and very popular they were.

There is a picture of Princess Victoria ("Toria"), daughter of Edward VII & Queen Alexandra (1868-1935) holding a cat on the royal yacht (see picture). I don't how significant this is. It does indicate that a royal personage kept a Siamese cat. The picture was taken in about 1914.

I can find nothing else that indicates that British royalty liked and kept cats. It's a doggy family.

However Siamese royalty was different. Siam is now Thailand and the Siamese cat as you probably know originates in Thailand. At one time, it seems (cat history can be a bit vague) that the Siamese cat was confined to the Royal Palace and the King of Siam. This was clearly a special cat in Thailand in the 19th century and the King of Siam, at the time of the cat's export to the West, was a cat person.

Siamese Cat History
King of Siam 1853-1910

The King of Siam allowed a foreigner to export the Siamese out of Siam to start the breed in the West. The story of the Siamese cat's kinked tail is bound up with the creation of this breed in the West. See also Siamese cat history.