Meghan Markle and Prince Harry enlisted the help of a Hollywood star to help them sneak from Canada to LA. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry enlisted the help of a Hollywood star to help them sneak from Canada to LA. Photo / Getty Images
Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry personally sent his massive $150 million private jet to whisk Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Los Angeles in a top secret, early morning enterprise, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.
The hush-hush operation allowed the secrecy-obsessed royals to leave their temporary home on Canada's Vancouver Island and to avoid any wait at customs once they arrived in California.
"It was a well-planned operation that appears to have worked perfectly," one insider said.
As DailyMail.com exclusively revealed on Thursday, Harry and Meghan are living in Perry's US $18 million (NZD $29 million) mansion in ultra-tony Beverly Ridge Estates just outside Beverly Hills.
But the question has remained — until now — how did they get from Canada to southern California without being spotted?
DailyMail.com has learned Perry's $150 million jet left its base outside Atlanta at 1:35am on Saturday, March 14 on its way to pick up Harry, Meghan and 1-year-old baby Archie.
Tyler Perry has put Meghan and Harry up in his US $18 million (NZD $29 million) mansion in ultra-tony Beverly Ridge Estates just outside Beverly Hills. Photo / Getty Images
It is not known whether the Madea star was himself on the Embraer-E190, a "stretch" version of a plane mainly flown by JetBlue Airlines in the United States.
The plane landed at a corporate airport in Portland, Oregon, five hours later at 3:39am West Coast time, staying for a little over an hour before flying on to Victoria International Airport, just minutes from the waterfront home in North Saanich where they had been living since fleeing England.
The plane then took off from Victoria with the former royals on board at 7:35am for the quick hop back to Portland's Hillsboro Airport.
Then it was on to Hollywood Burbank airport, previously named Bob Hope, where they landed at 10:01am. They could speed through that celebrity-filled airport having already gone through Customs and immigration in Portland.
The details of the flight are hidden on the website OpenSky which gives all times in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which is four hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time and seven hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time.
Clocks had gone forward the previous weekend.
Perry bought the Embraer in 2017 and houses it at McCollum Field, a municipally owned airport in Cobb County just outside Atlanta. The Hollywood star was given a $1.8 million tax break to keep it there under a top-secret plan known as "Project Meatloaf."
Rather than being registered directly to Perry, it is owned by a holding company known as ETPC Aviation.
The plane, with a top speed of 541 mph, is large enough to carry up to 124 people in coach class.
"It's a beast," said one aircraft insider. "Why anybody would want a private plane of this size is beyond me."
Fifty-year-old Perry's eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom Tuscan-style villa sits on 22 acres on the top of a hill in the guard-gated community and offers sweeping views of the city from the backyard.
It is not known whether Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, are renting Perry's property or staying there as guests, but there is no record of the mansion having been sold.
Both the Sussexes and Perry, who is worth US $600 million, consider legendary talk show host and businesswoman Oprah their Hollywood mentor.
She is godmother to Perry's 5-year-old son, Aman, and was seen at the house Meghan and Harry are now staying at for the little boy's christening party back in 2015.
The Duke and Duchess are currently working on a documentary series with Oprah, while Perry has partnered with Oprah's OWN television channel in the past.
Both the Sussexes and Perry consider legendary talk show host and businesswoman Oprah their Hollywood mentor. Photo / Getty Images
A source told DailyMail.com: "Meghan and Harry have been extremely cautious to keep their base in LA under wraps.
"Their team helped them choose the location for their transition to Los Angeles wisely.
"Beverly Ridge has its own guarded gate and Tyler's property has a gate of its own which is watched by their security team.
"Beverly Ridge is an excellent place to keep out of view. The neighbors are mostly old money and mega rich business types rather than show business gossips.
"It goes without saying that the location is stunning — just one of the most beautiful and desirable areas in LA."
Beverly Ridge Estates is close to the Van Nuys private airport and some of the most desirable private schools on the Westside of Los Angeles.
Socialite Paris Hilton lived there for just under a year in 2004 after her former fiancé Paris Latsis bought her an 11,206 square foot mansion in December 2004.
Other local celebrities who have owned homes in the community include ex-spouses David and Carlton Gebbia, who starred on reality show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and had a burlesque room in their $22 million Gothic-style mansion.
It is also home to socialite Alexis Carson, the widow of popular talk show host Johnny Carson.
Top Hollywood real estate agent Rochelle Maize of the Nourmand & Associates agency told DailyMail.com: "Beverly Ridge Estates has just 14 homes but is very prestigious and chic.
"There are not many rentals on offer there because of the limited number of properties.
"Leases start at around [US] $20,000 and can go up to $40,000 a month. It costs around $16 million to buy a property there."
Perry expressed sympathy for Meghan earlier this year, referencing comments that she made to ITV news presenter Tom Bradby for a documentary shot in Africa.
