Princess Diana Dreamed Of Moving To California Like Harry And Meghan

Jun 17, 2021

Princess Diana was universally loved by not only the British public but by people worldwide. She used her influence to enact good, spending much of her time campaigning for humanitarian causes that improved the lives of others. She sat with people who were ill, helping to break the stigma of the then-new diseases HIV and AIDS. These are the reasons she became known as the “People’s Princess” — she was a shining beacon of light in the royal family. 
It’s been nearly 24 years since she tragically passed away, but whenever we see photos of her it’s still incredibly moving. This is a testament to how much the public adored her, and she’s still often talked about and even featured in the media, whether for her charitable deeds or impeccable fashion sense. We’ve seen thousands of photos of Diana, and they never fail to move us. With her signature coiffed hair, appreciation of bright patterns, admiration for creative necklaces and ability to make any dress look classy, everyone can admit that Princess Diana was a fashion icon.

Like most royals, Princess Diana did her fair share of traveling, and she was in France when she passed away due to a car crash. However, Europe was not the only place Princess Diana had her eye on. According to her butler and her voice coach, Princess Diana wanted to move to where her son Prince Harry now lives: California. 

Read on to learn more about the late Princess Diana’s California dreams, and the Malibu house she had planned out.

Diana, Princess of Wales, was universally loved by not only the British public but by people the world over. Born on July 1, 1961, Diana was the fourth of five children. Unfortunately, Princess Diana’s life was taken too soon as she passed away from a car crash at the young age of 36. Throughout her life and royal service, she used her influence to enact good, spending much of her time campaigning for humanitarian causes that improved the lives of others. She sat with people who were ill, helping to break the stigma of then-new diseases HIV and AIDS. These are the reasons she became known as the “People’s Princess,” — she was a shining beacon of light in the royal family.

Princess Diana was married to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981. However, their marriage eventually had too many strains to continue. Prince Charles was 12 years older than Princess Diana, and eventually, an extramarital affair began. When the cracks in the couple’s relationship became too public and painful to bear, the couple divorced in 1996. Princess Diana passed away in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997 — just one year after her divorce. 

According to ABC News, years after Princess Diana’s passing, her butler revealed in 2006 that the princess had planned to move to Malibu, California. The coincidence seems poignant, as Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and their son Archie moved to Montecito, California after Megxit, and had their baby daughter Lilibet in the sunshine state. According to the former butler, Paul Burrell, Princess Diana already had the house in Malibu picked out just before she passed away.

The move was also timed with the fact that her boyfriend at the time, businessman Dodi Fayed, had just bought his own property in the Malibu area. Burrell told ABC News of Diana:

“She said, ‘This is our new life, just won’t it be great, think of the lifestyle, the boys—nobody’s judgmental here in America, you don’t have the class system, you don’t have the establishment.”

According to the butler, Diana had extensive and detailed plans for the house. He said:

“[The house] was going to be in Malibu...I saw the plans. We sat on the floor, spread out all the maps and the layout of the house. Why couldn’t [the boys] come and spend a portion of their time in America? That would be very stiff and staunchy if the queen would say, ‘No, they can’t go to America.’”

According to an interview with US Weekly, Diana’s voice coach Stewart Pearce said that she was very serious about the move to Malibu. He said:

“She was talking about buying a property in Malibu [and saying] that would be ‘really great’ for the boys to have freedom so that they could surf. Because they’re both very sporty, you know, but they could surf, they could roller blade, they could Frisbee.”

Pearce went on to talk about how Harry and Meghan’s move is another way of honoring Diana’s legacy:

“They’re really taking on so much of what her legacy is, to bring liberation to the disenfranchised, the disassociated...All of this is within the understanding of what liberation she wanted to bring about in the sense of using her position as an egalitarian or humanitarian role, because people looked on her as being of iconic status the most.”

What do you think about the connection between Harry and Meghan's move to California and Princess Diana's Malibu hopes? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to other royal fans you know!