Related Articles
Meghan Markle’s school friend Katherine McPhee’s husband arranged her and Prince Harry’s Christmas getaway in a $14million mansion on Vancouver Island, Canada, by connecting them to its mystery multi-millionaire owner, Dailymail.com can reveal.
Music producer David Foster, 69, told DailyMail.com that he hooked up the royal couple with accommodation in a secluded waterfront estate in North Saanich, owned by a close friend of the Canadian songwriter – but declined to identify the owner.
Foster said his wife, 35-year-old Hollywood actress Katharine McPhee, who went to school with Meghan in Los Angeles, discovered that the Duke and Duchess were in need of a discreet spot for their first Christmas holiday with seven-month-old Archie and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, and he was happy to oblige.
‘I felt honored that I was able to help Meghan there, because I’m a Canadian and we’re a commonwealth country, we’re the Crown’s,’ Foster told DailyMail.com. ‘It’s important to us, so I grew up with that kind of sentiment.
‘I was really happy to be able to help them to find a respite just to take a little time off.’
DailyMail.com has learned that music producer David Foster, 69, arranged for Prince harry, Meghan and Archie to stay at a secluded mansion on Canada’s Vancouver Island for Christmas
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spent their first Christmas with baby Archie in this $14.1 million waterfront mansion in Canada owned by a mystery millionaire
Foster told DailyMail.com how his wife Katharine McPhee, 35, discovered that the Duke and Duchess were in need of a discreet spot for their first Christmas holiday. McPhee (right) went to school with Meghan (left) in Los Angeles and the two did theater together growing up
He said he did not know if the couple were paying rent, saying that he simply helped them make the connection.
Foster, who was born on Vancouver Island and has produced music by dozens of top stars including Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, said he has been friends with the mansion owner for years, but wanted the owner’s identity to stay secret.
‘The owner has allowed this to happen through me, and I was happy to facilitate,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what their next plans are, but I know that it was reinvigorating for them to spend some downtime.
Foster said that he had previously arranged for Russian oligarch Yuri Milner, pictured with wife Julia, to rent the property around 2014
‘This is a great testament to my hometown of Victoria that they were able to go under the radar for so long.’
Last week DailyMail.com exclusively revealed the royal couple’s choice of the eight-bedroom mansion in a private, gated neighborhood in the rural district north of the Island’s capital of Victoria, where they celebrated their new son’s first Christmas and the beginning of the 2020s.
Foster described how he made the connection with the Duke and Duchess via his new wife, who has starred in American Idol and the CBS show Scorpion and married Foster in London, England, this summer.
McPhee was at Immaculate Heart Middle School in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, while Markle, 38, was at its companion high school. McPhee’s sister Adriana, 37, was a contemporary of Markle at the school.
‘Katharine went to school with Meghan and her sister went to school with Meghan,’ he said. ‘We actually met Meghan and Harry at D-Day in London maybe a year ago. Immediately we were drawn to them, like everybody is, and I was just happy to help.
‘I was just happy through my friend to facilitate what I could for them, and it looked like they had a great rest. They’re a young modern family. I’m sure they want to balance their commitment to the crown and be a 2020 family.’
McPhee posted a picture of herself and Meghan on Instagram in January last year revealing they were former school friends.
‘Meghan and I did musicals together as kids,’ the actress wrote. ‘She grew up to be the Duchess of Sussex and I grew up to star on the West End, so same life if you ask me.’
Foster said that he first visited the home around 2010 for an event with his charity, the David Foster Foundation, which gives financial assistance to children from poor Canadian families in need of organ transplants.
‘I actually was familiar with the house from about nine years ago because we used the house for a retreat for my own David Foster Foundation,’ the songwriter and producer said.
‘The house was magical, and for the one or two days that we used the house for our board of directors we accomplished so much in this magical place.’
Meghan Markle’s Suits costar Abigail Spencer is spending time with the royals in the Vancouver and was spotted on a hike with the Duke and Duchess on New Year’s Day. Spencer and Markle are pictured in New York and February where they celebrated The Duchess’ baby shower
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle helped capture this picture of Iliya Pavlovic, left, and Asymina Kantorowicz, right. The royal pair approached them while on a New Year’s Day hike in Vancouver Island’s Horth Hill Regional Park to see if they needed help
Foster said their stay in the waterfront mansion inspired them to grow the charity into a multi-million dollar organization.
‘It was life-changing for our foundation. We had $149,000, now we’re at $34 million and going to $50 million from an endowment. It was a magical stay and a real turnaround,’ he told DailyMail.com.
A couple revealed that the royals helped take pictures of them as they struggled with a selfie stick while out on a hike in Vancouver.
Meghan and Harry approached Iliya Pavlovic and Asymina Kantorowicz on New Year’s Day in Vancouver Island’s Horth Hill Regional Park.
Kantorowicz, a producer for CTV News, said she did not recognize the pair at first, instead noting that Duchess’s Suits co-star Abigail Spencer – who the couple are spending the holidays with – ‘looked familiar’.
But after the realization of who she was speaking to Kantorowicz says she ‘froze up’.
She added: ‘I actually couldn’t believe who it was. Then I looked over to the side and that’s when I realized Prince Harry was standing there. I kept looking back and forth like, “Is this actually happening?”
The couple say Meghan was ‘super friendly’ and took three photos of them. Prince Harry is said to have joked ‘no pressure’ as she captured the images.
The French country-inspired mansion was listed by Sotheby’s in 2012 for $18,459,645 Canadian dollars ($14.1 million USD, £10.7 million) fully furnished
The main house is 11,416 square feet with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and a 2,349 square foot guest cottage with three beds and two baths
The property was bought around 2010 by Bernadette Wolfswinkel, the ex-wife of disgraced Arizona property magnate Conley Wolfswinkel who was convicted of bank fraud and was accused of owing US taxpayers $2 billion
Inside the main house is a formal dining room, paneled office with fireplace, large two-story living room opening to the chef’s kitchen with pizza oven, game room with wet bar, media room and wine tasting room, according to the Sotheby’s listing
The property was listed for sale in 2012 for $18.5 million (CAD) by Sothebys, boasting two beaches and views across the peninsula from the four acre estate.
The listing described a 11,416 square foot main house with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms and a 2,349 square foot guest cottage with three beds and two baths.
Inside the main house is a formal dining room, paneled office with fireplace, large two-story living room opening to the chef’s kitchen with pizza oven, game room with wet bar, media room and wine tasting room, according to the Sotheby’s listing.
A real estate agent involved in the 2014 sale of the mansion said it was bought by a US-based billionaire who is neither Canadian nor American.
Foster said that he had previously arranged for Russian oligarch Yuri Milner, who at one time owned more than eight percent of Facebook and five percent of Twitter, to rent the property around 2014, but that the California-based tech magnate did not own the house.
‘About five or six years ago I helped my friend Yuri rent the house for a short time. I don’t know if that was for a week or a month or whatever. The owner is not Yuri, but it is an acquaintance of mine. I can’t disclose his name,’ Foster told DailyMail.com.
A spokeswoman for Milner confirmed that neither he nor his family or companies had any ownership of the mansion.
Source link
