6 royals who moved to America: Japan’s Princess Mako and Sweden’s Princess Madeleine both chose New York for a quieter life in the US, while Meghan Markle and Prince Harry settled in LA

Mar 3 , 2022

Learn more about these six royals that lived and settled down in the United States. Photos: Kyodo, AFP, Princess Madeleine of Sweden/Facebook, @royalisticism/Instagram

Harry and Meghan caused a stir when they traded Frogmore Cottage for Santa Barbara, while Japan’s former royal Mako Komuro relocated to the Big Apple after her marriage last year

Ethiopia’s Prince Joel and Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark studied stateside and decided to stay, but what about Princess Madeleine’s Florida family abode?

Is settling down and living in the United States a wise decision for royals seeking a “normal” life?

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia thinks so. The European prince, who has lived in New York since 1984 and has a self-named jewellery brand based there, says that the city is the best place to live because it allows anonymity.

The prince grew up in Paris but prefers the US to Europe. He feels America is a much more free society, and since Europe is an older world, everything is more complicated, he said in an interview earlier this month.

But aside from Prince Dimitri, which other royals moved to the US, and what are their reasons for doing so?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have never stated publicly their reasons for living in Montecito, a community in Santa Barbara, a new epilogue in royal biography Finding Freedom claims it was recommended by their A-list friends including US host Oprah Winfrey who described it as the “perfect place to raise a family”, according to Hello!. Winfrey also said that Montecito offers security and privacy yet is “close enough to the amenities of civilisation when needed”.

Former Princess Mako of Japan

Japan’s former princess Mako, the elder daughter of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko, and her husband Kei Komuro, who she originally met while at university, announce their marriage registration, at the Grand Arc Hotel in Tokyo in October 2021. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Former Princess Mako of Japan and her commoner husband, Kei Komuro moved to the Big Apple last year to start a new life after she exited the imperial royal family. Before their relocation, the pair tied the knot in a low-key ceremony in Tokyo.