Harry and Meghan urged to ‘keep safe’ after mountain lion spotted near their mansion in California

Prince Harry and Meghan are reportedly on “high alert”, after a mountain lion was spotted near their home in California.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live in a £12.1million mansion with their children Archie, three and Lilibet, one, are located within just five miles of where the wild animal was recored on a security camera on 23 July.

As the couple have chickens and two rescue dogs, they are being urged to secure their Montecito home and any animals that might be at risk from an attack.

While mountain lions are not considered much of a threat to humans, there have been several attacks this summer.

Among them was a young girl, who got hurt while playing hide and seek in Washington.

Locals believe that the predator was in search of food and drink due to the drought they are experiencing.

Sharon Byrne is executive director of the Montecito Association, which includes Harry, 37 and Meghan, 41.

Speaking to The Sun, Sharon said: “This part of Montecito is a very rural, very mountainous area, the kind of habitat for mountain lions.

“There’s a drought here in California so he or she was probably looking for water and whatever food can be scavenged, so that’s why it’s headed to where people live.

“Chickens can be a fast, easy source of food for hunting animals so they have to be safe and secure…mountain lions are solitary creatures and ultimately, they don’t want to be around people, so we’re hoping this one moves on by itself.”

Prince Harry

Duke of Sussex

Although he is no longer classed as a working Royal, Prince Harry is the youngest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the younger brother of Prince William. He was born as Henry Charles Albert David in St Mary’s Hospital, London, in 1984.

Prince Harry trained as an officer for the military and served two deployments between 2007 and 2013 in Afghanistan, before resigning from the army in 2015. A year prior, the Duke of Sussex set up the Invictus Games - an international multi-sport event for injured or sick servicemen and women.

Harry is a patron to several other organisations including the HALO Trust and he also set up ‘Heads Together’ - a mental health awareness campaign alongside his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

• Age: 37
• Born: 15 September 1984, in London
• Lives: £12.1 million mansion in Montecito, California
• Partner: Meghan Markle
• Children: Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, three, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, one.
• Wealth: As of May 2022, Prince Harry is worth £47.8million, according to Landscape Insight.

Harry and Meghan are among locals who are being urged to protect their homes from a possible attack, and as they have young children, safety is paramount.

Harry spoke to the Today show about his routine and parenthood.

He said: “[My daily routine] revolves around the kids as much as humanly possible. This whole working from home stuff is not all it’s cracked up to be, certainly post-Covid.

“Because it is really hard when your kids and you are in the same place. It is really hard to separate the work from them, because they kind of overlap. So I mean Archie spends more time interrupting our Zoom calls than anybody else. But he also gets us off them as well, so that’s nice.”

Connections

Prince William

According to Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton, brothers Prince William and Harry’s relationship is “incredibly intimate…nobody knows what’s gone on in their heads and their hearts for the last 20-odd years.”

The brothers have a three-year age gap and have always had a close bond, especially as a result of their mother’s sudden death in 1997.

However, sources claim they have slowly drifted apart since the start of Harry’s relationship with Suits actress Meghan Markle. The tension reportedly intensified when the couple moved to America and dropped their royal duties.

The Queen

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Harry have a close relationship despite the recent turmoil of his departure from royal life - notably, Harry’s youngest child is named after his grandmother and it was revealed that they video call each other often.

People reported a close friend of the Queen and Harry said: “If Harry asks, the Queen would say yes - she adores him.”

Prince Charles

Despite being part of the Royal family and having the media spotlight on them from birth, Prince Charles and Harry have a normal father-son relationship. They’ve had a few bumps along the way but are ultimately close.

The father and son have looked after one another from Diana’s death up until when Charles stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle at their wedding because her father wouldn’t be attending.

The fallout between Harry and Prince Charles started at the Sandringham Summit when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wanted to step back from royal duties. Harry said in an interview with Oprah that he felt “really let down by his father.”

He added: “Of course I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that.”

Personal

Diana

As her youngest son, Harry and Diana had a special bond, which continued after she died when he was 12.

Following the fatal car crash, Harry struggled with his mental health and even turned to a rehabilitation centre.

To keep her memory alive, both Harry and William have given their children Diana’s name and have shared photos and stories with their young ones.

Meghan Markle

Harry and Meghan were set up a blind date in Soho in July 2016, by a mutual friend and their relationship went from “0 to 60” in a couple of months.

However, it wasn’t until October 2016 that the media started to report that the two were dating, and November that the Palace confirmed the relationship.

Harry proposed to Meghan a year after the Palace’s announcement and they married in May 2018.

Their relationship has been the centre of many media stories over the years, including an interview with Oprah Winfrey and the expose of a letter from Meghan Markle’s father, to name a few.

Chelsea Davy

The longest relationship Prince Harry had before Meghan was with Chelsea Davy, daughter of Zimbabwean businessman Charles Davy.

The two got together in Cape Town while Harry was on a gap year and continued an on-off again relationship from 2004 until 2011.

Davy attended the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding as Harry’s plus-one in 2011, and revealed that they will always be good friends, despite their split.