Meghan of Montecito

The conditions are right for confession. It is a beautiful August day in Montecito, in a beautiful sitting room, in a beautiful home. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, a lively 3-year-old with a shock of ginger curls identical to his father’s, toddles into the room demanding “Momma” listen to his heartbeat with a wooden toy stethoscope. He stands, tummy protruding, while his mother, Meghan, convincingly performs her glee at hearing the thump-thump, thump-thump in his chest. Archie giggles and, satisfied, toddles right back out again.

Meghan, relaxing in a cozy chair, gazes over all that is climate-controlled and high-ceilinged and sun-dappled and perfectly marshmallowy, and hers. An invisible hand has lit a Soho House–branded rose-water candle (the founder, Nick Jones, is a friend from “long before I met Harry,” she says), and that scent fills the air, mingling with the gentle tones of a flamenco-inflected guitar floating from a speaker. Then, in the lull in conversation, Meghan turns to me and leans forward to ask in a conspiratorial hush, “Do you want to know a secret?”

Some things you should know: how to make the most of your fall booster shot, and how to use the emergency-SOS feature on your smartphone. Plus mark your calendar for September 3: Movie theaters across the country will offer $3 tickets for National Cinema Day. A new study says it is inevitable that 3.3 percent of the Greenland ice sheet will melt, triggering nearly a foot of global sea-level rise. Meanwhile, start-ups are pushing Adderall and cut-rate Ketamine therapy on TikTok. Burning Man is back, so 80,000 people are probably about to get COVID. And we hear about “Florida man” all the time, but let’s not forget the “Florida woman,” like this one who did an Irish folk dance during a field sobriety test.

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