Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Secluded Santa Barbara Mansion Near Giant Cannabis Farm

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's dream of getting away from the stresses of city life may not have gone quite according to plan.

While their secluded nine-bedroom, sixteen-bathroom home in Santa Barbara, California, is a short walk from a large farm, it's not somewhere the royal couple can take little Archie to look at cute animals.

It's a giant cannabis farm.

A legal weed firm has 20 large greenhouses full of the plants just minutes from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's mansion in California.

And following a string of complaints from neighbors, the company has vowed to install new odor control systems.

One local told the Mirror the smell can get so bad he sometimes had to pull over while driving.

The factory is less than a 10-minute drive from the Montecito mansion where the couple live with son Archie, 2, and 2-month-old daughter Lilibet.

Yesterday local Gregory Gondrod, 60, said of the new anti-smell measures, “‘This is good news for us, and Harry and Meghan.

The stink was getting stronger and heading their way.

I was driving along the freeway and was hit hard by the smell.

I had to pull over.

It made me completely lose my train of thought.

It doesn't make you high but it's not what you want driving at 70 miles per hour.

Lots of people here are suffering.”

Richard Minierds, another neighbor, added, “‘Growing cannabis near here' became legal in 2016 and lots of growers jumped on the bandwagon.”

The Santa Barbara Coalition of Responsible Cannabis and Cannabis Association for Responsible Producers have both promised a new expanded odor response process.

Harry, 36, admitted to smoking pot as a teenager and was sent to a drug rehab clinic for a day, at 17, by Prince Charles.

Meghan, 40, reportedly gave guests a joint at her first wedding in Jamaica, where the drug is legal, in 2011.

In other news, Prince William and Kate are seriously considering moving to Windsor to be closer to the Queen and royal decision-making, it is reported.

The change of location from Sandringham would fit in with William having a more senior role in the royal family and a source has reportedly told the Daily Mail the couple have been eyeing up accommodation options.

Currently the Cambridges divide their time between their London base of Kensington Palace, where they have their offices and their country residence of Anmer Hall, in Norfolk.

The home on the Sandringham estate was a wedding present from the Queen and worked well for them at the time as William was a helicopter pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Along with this, the Cambridges wanted to give their children George, Charlotte and Louis a steady upbringing without public intrusion.

But now with the older two kids at London schools it means Anmer Hall is a long way to go at weekends.

A source told the Mail on Sunday, Anmer Hall made sense while William was a helicopter pilot in East Anglia and it was useful for Christmases at Sandringham, but it doesn't really work anymore.

It's a little too far away for weekends, but Windsor is a perfect compromise.

They are eyeing up options in the area.

Being in Windsor would mean that they are closer to the Queen who is now on her own since Prince Philip's death and it would mean a lot to the elderly monarch to have them nearby.

Strategically as well the Cambridges would be nearer to the action and discussing royal matters.

William has a close relationship with his grandmother and reportedly would go and have lunch with his grandparents while at Eton.

The Queen's plan when she returns from holiday at Balmoral is to spend most of her time at Windsor and much less at Buckingham Palace so it would also fit in with the Cambridges moving there.

During the pandemic, the Queen had already spent most of the lockdown with Philip at Windsor.

The move to Windsor would also be good for Kate's family who are based not far away in Bucklebury.

Her parents who see a lot of their grandchildren live there as does her sister Pippa.