Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have opened their Montecito, California home to friends who were evacuated during the Los Angeles wildfires.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have also donated clothes, children’s items, and other essential items to those affected by the fires, Us Weekly has learned.
Markle, 43, and Harry, 40, live in Montecito with their children Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3. Their home is around 80 miles north of the Pacific Palisades area in LA, where the fires first broke out on Tuesday, January 7.
It’s not known which of Markle and Harry’s friends were affected by the fires and which are sheltering with the couple. Celebrities including Mandy Moore, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sandra Lee have been evacuated from their homes.
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The couple are also assisting World Central Kitchen and chef José Andrés with relief efforts, Us can confirm. The Duke and Duchess’ Archewell Foundation is a longtime partner of the organization, which provides meals to communities in need around the world.
The couple have dedicated a page on their official website to the wildfires, sharing information about resources and organizations taking part in the relief effort.
The couple first moved to California from the UK in 2020 during the pandemic. After a brief stay on Vancouver Island, Canada, Markle and Harry spent several months at Tyler Perry’s Los Angeles home before purchasing their own home.
“He’s like, ‘You’re not going to stay a week. You’re going to stay as long as you need, and I’m going to get you there safely until you have somewhere to go,’” Markle recalled Perry saying during the Harry and Meghan Netflix docuseries, which aired in 2022.
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The couple also shared in the docuseries that they had named Perry a godfather to their daughter Lilibet.
Harry and Markle aren’t the only royals to publicly comment on the fires. Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, shared a video message on Instagram on Thursday, where she said she was “devastated” to learn of the fires.
“All the people who have been evacuated from their homes, they’ve lost their homes. The animals, the humane society, I am just so devastated. I just had to say something,” Ferguson said.
“You know that I am 100% there. I really want to know how we can help. All over the world is just so affected by this extraordinary devastation. My heart goes out to the emergency services, to all the people who are tirelessly working and have been working for all these days to try and contain the fire,” she added.
Check the LAFD website for local wildfire alerts and click here for resources on how to help those affected.
