Montecito Residents Largely Ignore Prince Harry’s Memoir

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's adoptive hometown in California has shown little interest in his memoir, with one resident proclaiming that they didn't read it and will not read it.

On the day of release in the United States, the owner of the Tekeload bookshop in Montecito reported that she did not sell a single copy.

This was the day after a massive storm had begun to wreak havoc on California, with flooding across the state and residents in the wealthy hillside community ordered to evacuate.

Even since that day, things have calmed down, and people are back in their homes, but bookshop owner Mary Sheldon says she has only sold around 30 copies.

Asked for her thoughts on Harry's memoir and the controversies surrounding it, Ms. Sheldon said, “It's a book.

He took time to gather his thoughts and wanted to publish it, so I am here to sell it.

I think most people up here think of it as a soap opera.”

The Guardian reports that the lack of interest in the book in Montecito could be because the town of around 10,000 people respects the privacy of celebrities that live there, including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom.

Montecito Trails Foundation President Ashley Mayfield said one of the foundation's board members bumped into the Duke of Sussex in the mountains, and the prince helped him move a fallen tree that had blocked the trail.

She said, “I think he really wants to be a normal guy in town,” and she isn't surprised that residents don't speak out about the Sussexes.

The extreme weather of the past few years has reinforced resistance to the celebrity publicity machine that many are trying to escape by living in Montecito.

Ms. Mayfield said, “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.”

Les Feierstein, a former Hollywood comedy writer turned local magazine editor, says many residents think of the royal family's feud as a remote curiosity.