Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Montecito home breached by intruder TWICE

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s mansion in Southern California, was breached two times by the same intruder over the Christmas holiday, a new report claims. 

Nickolas Brooks, 37, was first caught trespassing at the $14.65million property in Montecito on December 24, but officers with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office let him off with a warning, TMZ reported Sunday. 

Two days later Brooks showed up again on December 26 and was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of misdemeanor trespassing. 

Sources told TMZ that Brooks had driven all the way from Ohio. It’s unclear why he went to the home or if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were there at the time.     

News of Brooks’ breaches comes a week after Harry opened up about being worried for his family’s safety during the couple’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.  

Harry revealed how Buckingham Palace revoked their security detail when they stepped down as senior royals and moved to North America.   

He said that he and Meghan inked their lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify because they needed money to cover their own security after being ‘cut off financially’ by the Palace after their departure from the UK. 

‘I’ve got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this.

‘During COVID, the suggestion by a friend was, “What about streamers?”‘ Harry said, while Meghan added: ‘We genuinely hadn’t thought about it before.’

‘We hadn’t thought about it,’ Harry continued. ‘So, there were all sorts of different options. And look, from my perspective, all I needed was enough money to be able to pay for security to keep my family safe.’ 

The deals with Netflix and Spotify were said to be worth $100million and $25million, respectively.  

Harry, 36, and his brother William inherited £21million ($29million) from their mother Diana. The money was held in trust until they turned 25.

Harry also received a smaller figure from the Queen Mother’s will after she died in 2002, putting his total inheritance assets at around $32million, the Times estimates.

In the Oprah interview the couple revealed that Hollywood heavyweight Tyler Perry, who lent them his $18million Beverly Hills mansion when they first moved to LA, had paid for their security while they were living there. 

‘We needed a house, and he offered us security as well, so it gave us breathing room to try and figure out what we are going to do,’ Meghan explained, while Harry hit out at the royals for removing his security at such ‘short notice’. 

‘The biggest concern was that while we were in Canada, in someone else’ house, and then I got told short notice that security was going to be removed,’ he said, explaining that this news came shortly before the world went into lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. 

‘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,’ he said. 

‘The world knows where we are. It’s not safe. It’s not secure.’ 

At the time, it was estimated that security for the couple could cost upwards of $5.5million a year – a sum that was previously paid by British taxpayers through the Metropolitan Police budget. 

Many critics insisted that the couple should have to pick up the bill themselves after they quit working royal life in favor of a move to the US.  

According to Harry, the couple’s police protection – which is given to all of the most senior working royals – was taken away because of their ‘change in status’. 

‘Their justification is a change in status, of which I pushed back and said, “Well is there a change of threat or risk?”‘ he recalled. 

‘And after many weeks of waiting, eventually, I got the confirmation that, no, the risk and threat hasn’t changed, but [it was] due to our change of status, which we would not longer be official working members of the royal family.’ 

The Duke admitted that the move came as a surprise to him, because he had thought that he would always be afforded protection because he was a royal by birth and therefore ‘inherited the risk’ that comes with being in that position. 

‘I never thought I would have my security removed, because I was born in to this position,’ he said. ‘I inherited the risk. So that was a shock to me.’ 

Meghan also said that she ‘wrote letters’ to the royal family in which she pleaded with them to keep Harry’s security in place, but claimed that she was told it ‘was not possible’, despite her insisting that he was facing ‘death threats’ and ‘racist propaganda’. 

‘I even wrote letters to his family saying, “Please, it’s very clear the protection of me or Archie is not a priority. I accept that, that is fine. Please keep my husband safe. I see the death threats. I see the racist propaganda. 

‘”Please keep him safe, please don’t pull his security and announce to the world when he and we are most vulnerable.” And they said it’s just not possible.’ 

Harry and Meghan’s nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion – which they bought with the help of a $16million mortgage last summer – is believed to have tripled in value over the past nine months, according to local real estate agent Sandy Stahl. 

A fan, Anastasia Hanson, set up a GoFundMe campaign to help the couple cover their mortgage last week after they opined about financial struggles in the Oprah interview.  

In the description of the campaign, 56-year-old Hanson wrote that the ‘jobless’ Duke and Duchess had been going through a ‘very rough time’ after having funding for their security and lifestyle pulled by the Royal family.

However the campaign didn’t garner much sympathy and was ultimately closed down after raising just over $100.