Residents and pub staff in the tiny Cotswolds hamlet of Asthall have closed ranks around Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, refusing to discuss the couple's recent activities just weeks after their return from the US.
Meghan Markle was spotted having lunch at The Three Horseshoes pub in the Oxfordshire village on Monday with Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi. But if anyone besides the photographer noticed, they were not saying anything.
Village code of silence
Asthall, near Burford, has a population of around 250 and a single pub. On a mid-week afternoon, its honey-coloured stone houses and winding country roads were near-deserted. A couple of punters sat in the sunshine outside, and a handful of locals wandered the grassy tracks and verges.
Inside The Three Horseshoes, which blends spacious modernity with traditional wood panelling and a classic menu, staff were resolutely tight-lipped. Nobody, including the manager, would say what Meghan ordered, what she was like, or whether she was a regular.
That reticence runs through the village. “We do attract a lot of well-known people here,” Wendy Rainbow, 68, said. “This is the kind of village where we respect their privacy. They can walk about freely knowing they won’t be bothered.”
Celebrity neighbours
The Sussexes are far from the only household names to settle in the Cotswolds, where Liam Gallagher, Kate Moss and David and Victoria Beckham also live. While the odd holidaymaker might seize the opportunity to pester well-known residents, an unspoken code inhibits long-term locals from doing the same, with pointing, staring and asking for photos considered bad etiquette.
Karl Faller-Kerr, 53, who lives up the road from The Three Horseshoes, said the area has been “blown up by big celebrity players” in recent years, drawn by its “peaceful, nice and pretty” charm, on weekdays at least. Just a five-minute drive from Jeremy Clarkson’s pub, The Farmer’s Dog, it is a wonder Asthall enjoys the seclusion it does.
At weekends, Mr Faller-Kerr said, tourists descend and residents “can't move for cars”, with roads “absolutely jammed”. Even then, “there's a bit of an expectation you'll stay quiet about things”.
Turbulent return
Joe Beales, 32, said Ellen and Portia are frequent visitors. “Famous faces are pretty common here,” he added. “People aren't that fussed. They're just living their lives.” Geoff Mines, 79, said well-known people “can still come and go pretty quietly”. “You can see the appeal for Meghan and Harry,” he added.
It is easy to see why the couple is seeking sanctuary in the Cotswolds, given their bumpy first few weeks back on this side of the Atlantic. The Sussexes pulled Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet out of their new school after two days, when heavy traffic meant their private security team struggled to remain in a convoy on the school run.
Tensions with Buckingham Palace also rose after a letter authorised by King Charles described them as “private citizens”. The couple were said to be caught off guard, preferring the term “public figures” as they await the results of a review into taxpayer-funded security. The duke then became embroiled in the furore surrounding his uncle Earl Spencer’s memoir on Princess Diana, which claimed the King said “we'll forget her soon enough” after her death in 1997.
Publicly, the couple’s camp has struck a warmer note. Harry has said it is “wonderful to be back on British soil” and Meghan’s friend Kelly McKee Zajfen hailed the “loving” reception the duchess received from “everyone we've met or bumped into in the UK”.
In Asthall, discretion has its limits, though. Philip Rainbow, 68, was less restrained than some of his neighbours. “I'm not sure I've met a single person who likes Meghan,” he said. “And you lose sympathy for Harry because of the way he carries on. He doesn't help himself.” Then, the community closes ranks again. “We don't discuss people in the village or in the pub,” said a local farmer who didn’t want to be named. “If you're looking for gossip, you won't get much from the residents here.”
