Police have been called to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s £11millon California mansion nine times in as many months, police have revealed.
The couple and their one-year-old son Archie moved into the exclusive Montecito neighborhood in July last year.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has since responded to nine calls including two trespassings over Christmas and five alarm activations.
Police have been called to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Southern California mansion nine times in as many months, official figures reveal
Harry and Meghan moved in to their Montecito home with one-year-old son Archie in July last year
The data, obtained under Freedom of Information laws by the PA news agency, was released after the couple shared their security fears in their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Officers were called four times in July last year after Harry and Meghan moved to Montecito from Los Angeles, where they had been temporarily living since leaving Canada at the start of the pandemic.
One call is listed as a phone request while the others are labelled ‘alarm activations’ and all occurred in the early hours of the morning.
An August request is listed as ‘Misc Priority Incdnt’, while there was a further alarm in November.
At 4.13pm on Christmas Eve, sheriff’s deputies were called to the property after a man was alleged to have trespassed.
Nickolas Brooks, 37, from Ohio, was first let off with a warning but he showed up again on Boxing Day at 2.54pm and was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of misdemeanor trespassing.
The second call was listed by police as ‘Property Crimes’ and sources said Brooks had traveled to California from Ohio. He was later released by police.
Brooks subsequently said he may have been ‘high’ when he trespassed the house and he has a previous conviction for taking part in an attack which left a man with a broken bone in his face, according to The Sun.
He said: ‘I don’t know why I went to their place, that’s kind of where I ended up. I drove across the country – I know it’s crazy.
‘I’ve been told to stay away and that I’m never allowed back there but I don’t have to appear in court. I was in jail for a night and they told me to stay away in future.’
The most recent call was at 2.21am on February 16 this year and is listed as an alarm activation.
Representatives for Harry and Meghan declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office declined to provide further details about the calls.
The couple’s security arrangements hit the headlines following the interview with chat show host Winfrey in March.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has since responded to nine calls including two trespassings over Christmas and five alarm activations
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex , who are currently residing in California , are preparing to welcome a sister for their young son Archie later this year
The duchess, who is pregnant with a daughter, said she sent letters pleading with Harry’s family not to take away his personal protection officers, warning he was facing death threats.
Prince Harry claimed in the Oprah chat that when the Sussexes were in Canada he was told ‘at short notice security was going to be removed’.
Meghan also claimed the decision not to make her son a prince meant he would not get police protection.
But round-the-clock police protection is understood to have been taken away when they stepped down as working royals after a meeting of the government body that oversees protection.
Prince Charles then reportedly said he would not fund their private security out of his own money.
Officers were called four times in July last year after Harry and Meghan moved to Montecito from Los Angeles
Harry said: ‘I was born into this position. I inherited the risk. So that was a shock to me.’
Harry told Oprah Winfrey they were informed at ‘short notice’ that their police security detail would be cut off.
The prince said, ‘Their justification was a change in status’, adding that he ‘pushed back’.
Former chief superintendent Dai Davies, who led the Metropolitan Police’s royalty protection unit, said the couple’s plans were ‘utterly unrealistic’ and could have put British police at risk.
Mr Davies said he was ‘gobsmacked’ that the couple expected British taxpayers to pick up the bill – estimated at £4million a year.
He added: ‘It was utterly unrealistic to think they could continue to have their royal protection team working in America – in fact it would have put their [police] lives at risk.’
The couple’s security arrangements hit the headlines following the interview with chat show host Winfrey in March
UK officers cannot carry guns under US laws or access intelligence about potential threats.
Donald Trump, who was then president, also made it clear the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would have no US-funded Secret Service bodyguards after the couple moved to California from Canada in March 2020.
Explaining his decision to leave Canada for the US during the early days of the pandemic, Harry said: ‘The biggest concern was while we were in Canada, in someone else’s house, I then got told, short notice, that security was going to be removed. By this point, courtesy of the Daily Mail, the world knew our exact location.
‘So suddenly it dawned on me – ‘Hang on a second, the borders could be closed, we’re going to have our security removed, who knows how long lockdown is going to be, the world knows where we are, it’s not safe, it’s not secure, we probably need to get out of here’.’
The couple were escorted from Canada to California last March by UK police, but the officers were then summoned back to London.
Media mogul Tyler Perry, whose house they used in LA, then brought in private security for them.
They now pay for their own protection after moving into their own mansion in Montecito.
The couple’s friends are reported to have said the cost of the bodyguards is ‘exorbitant’.