The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are bringing up their kids in the celebrity enclave 90 miles up the coast from Los Angeles – but at least one neighbour is not impressed with the couple’s behaviour
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The gossip columnist on the Montecito Journal has blasted local residents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for "doing enormous harm not only to the Royal Family".
Richard Mineards, a British expat who previously worked on Fleet Street before becoming a TV correspondent in the US, has lived in wealthy Montecito for 13 years.
He now writes a gossip column for the local paper in his adopted hometown, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex live "quietly" alongside celebs such as Oprah Winfrey, Ariana Grande and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as rival power couple Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom.
READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told to 'grow-up' as support in the US wanes
The Guardian visited the town – on the coast around 90 miles north of Los Angeles – to find out what local people think of the controversy surrounding Spare and the couple's Netflix docuseries.
Mineard, who was the only person willing to discuss the book in detail, blasted: "I think the whole thing is reprehensible.
"It is doing enormous harm not only to the royal family but to his own family, he and his wife… If he really does want to reconcile with his family in due course, why does he keep throwing bombs at them? Where do they go from here?"
In a recent column for the Journal, he wrote: "As if one memoir Spare isn't enough, Riven Rock resident Prince Harry has revealed he has enough material to publish a second autobiography having cut almost half the material that had been written in a first draft."
The veteran journalist quipped: "No word yet if Charles is also writing a tome – Dis-spare!"
The Guardian also reported that local Tecolote bookshop had sold "about 30" copies of Spare, although owner Mary Sheldon seemed unimpressed with the memoir.
"It's a book," she said. "He took time to gather his thoughts and wanted to publish it, so I am here to sell it."
Sheldon also observed that "most people up here think of it as a soap opera" when asked about the ongoing discord between the Sussexes and the Royal Family.
Another local Montecito resident, the novelist TC Boyle, replied, "didn't read it, will not read it" when asked about the memoir.
Les Firestein, a former Hollywood comedy writer turned local magazine editor, added: "For most Montecitans, if not most Americans, royal watching is like bangers and mash – it's something we've heard of but isn't really our culture.
"We don't really notice Harry and Meghan, though sometimes the locals get rankled by the British tabloids trying to get to them."
However, Ashlee Mayfield, the president of the Montecito Trails Foundation, said Harry – who is often seen out hiking or mountain biking – had impressed by helping to move a fallen tree off a mountain trail.
"I think he really wants to be a normal guy in town," she said, adding: "Life up here isn’t all about gates and money and celebrity. There is a mutual respect and consideration because of what can happen and what we have lived through as a community."
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