As Prince Harry embraced his wife after winning a charity polo match in Florida on Friday he had more than one reason to celebrate.
Less than 24 hours earlier, the Sussexes unveiled two new projects for streaming giant Netflix – a ‘cooking and lifestyle’ show for Meghan and, most intriguingly, a series about polo hosted by Harry which, it was claimed, ‘will provide viewers with unprecedented access to the world of professional polo’.
A statement released by Archewell Productions – the company set up by the couple in 2020 after they quit as senior royals and signed a reported £80 million five-year deal with Netflix – declared: ‘Known primarily for its aesthetic and social scene, the series will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level.’
Harry will narrate and serve as executive producer on the show about the ‘Sport of Kings’ and, indeed, on Friday it was clear filming is already under way with a Netflix camera crew shadowing his every move at Florida’s ritzy Wellington Polo Club.
The Sussexes unveiled two new projects for streaming giant Netflix – a ‘cooking and lifestyle’ show for Meghan and, most intriguingly, a series about polo hosted by Harry
The Mail on Sunday understands that Harry – and his Netflix crew – will remain in Wellington this weekend to cover the prestigious US Open Polo Championships
While Harry’s ‘home’ club is the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club in California, a ten-minute drive from the Sussexes’ £12 million Montecito mansion, he appeared equally at ease in Wellington, Florida, a horse-mad enclave which serves as the HQ for the US Polo Association.
The Mail on Sunday understands that Harry – and his Netflix crew – will remain in Wellington this weekend to cover the prestigious US Open Polo Championships, which attracts top players from around the globe.
But one has to wonder just how far Harry (who, like his father King Charles and brother Prince William, has played polo since his teens) intends to ‘pull the curtain back’ on a sport that is as infamous for sexually charged off-field antics as it is for horsemanship.
Montecito socialite Kiki Astor penned a 2022 ‘bonkbuster’ called Stick & Ball loosely based on the sexual shenanigans she witnessed during her years passionately following the sport around the globe, from Argentina to Cowdray Park in West Sussex, home to the British Open Polo Championships.
She now spends Sundays during polo season at the Santa Barbara club, which costs $10,000 (£8,000) to join and charges $200 a month (£160) for membership.
Ms Astor, 51, said: ‘I don’t for a minute think Prince Harry is going to pull the curtain back on what really goes on.
‘Polo is a hyper-sexual sport. Everyone is having affairs. There is a lot of sex. You have macho men, many of whom are gorgeous and Argentinian, thundering around on horseback holding big mallets playing a game which is fast and dangerous.’
Might she be thinking of Nacho Figueras – the dashing polo pal of Harry’s – per chance? Dubbed the ‘David Beckham of Polo’, Figueras, 47, is an improbable confidant of the prince who has likened him to a ‘brother’, having grown up on a farm in Buenos Aires. But the pair met playing the sport and have been photographed together at polo events around the world.
Ms Astor says: ‘Polo oozes sex. All that leather and sweat. It’s like catnip to women, particularly bored married ones. In Santa Barbara we joke about polo players being ‘entertainment for the wives’. The whole thing is like a circus. During the season the polo teams pack up and move from tournament to tournament. Indiscretions are quickly forgotten.’
Harry played for the Los Padres team, headed by his friend Figueras, during the 2022 season
Once the day’s sport was over –though not the drinking – the polo players, who had swapped jodhpurs for skintight white jeans, swarmed into the hospitality tent
Indeed, I witnessed first-hand the debauched behaviour of the polo set a few years ago when I visited the Wellington club as a guest of the late Sarah Hunt, ex-wife of F1 champion James Hunt.
Sarah’s son Freddie was training to be a professional polo player and so I found myself, on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, sipping champagne in a hospitality suite so close to the action you could see the sweat flicking off both horses and riders.
Once the day’s sport was over –though not the drinking – the polo players, who had swapped jodhpurs for skintight white jeans, swarmed into the hospitality tent to be greeted like rock stars by adoring Chanel-clad female fans. Then the real sport began.
I’m no prude but it was eye-opening to see women who had proudly been showing me their engagement and wedding rings hours earlier, shedding their inhibitions as quickly as their clothing.
Much of the ‘action’ took place in an outdoor Jacuzzi, the steps to which were draped in hastily discarded designer dresses.
It was clear from the ‘motion of the ocean’, as Sarah jokingly called it, that marriage vows seemed not to apply under the bubbles. Bodies intertwined everywhere, not just in the Jacuzzi but embracing under trees and across the bonnets of luxury cars. It was impossible to avert your eyes.
As one player headed towards the stables with a trio of ladies, Sarah quipped: ‘He’s being put out to stud’, referring to the practice of pairing successful race horses with mares in the hope of siring a new champion.
By the night’s end, even the young grooms – or stable boys – were enjoying the lusty attention of women old enough to be their mothers. It was brazen, shocking and Bacchanalian, particularly to a not very worldly-wise twentysomething, as I was then.
Harry’s club in Santa Barbara is no stranger to controversy either, harbouring secrets stretching back years
While Harry’s ‘home’ club is the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club in California , a ten-minute drive from the Sussexes’ £12 million Montecito mansion, he appeared equally at ease in Wellington, Florida
Had I joined in – which I didn’t – the nudity would be only the start of my embarrassment, as those who were still wearing underwear exhibited sexy, black-lace garments by La Perla, putting my mismatched Marks and Spencer undies to shame.
Ms Astor says: ‘Of course Harry knows what goes on. I don’t expect for a minute that he will show that side of things.
‘He’s been part of that world for years. In his book [Spare], he admitted he lost his virginity to a female groom so he knows how sexually charged the horse world is.’
Last month, John Gobin, former captain of the US polo team, was accused by six teenage women of using cash, threats and power to prey on them sexually.
The women filed a civil lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and misconduct by Gobin at a polo school on his horse farm in Middleburg, Virginia. Gobin vehemently denies the allegations and police have declined to comment on whether any criminal investigation is ongoing.
Harry’s club in Santa Barbara is no stranger to controversy either, harbouring secrets stretching back years, including tales of underage sexual encounters and wild partying, which are unlikely to be covered by his new series.
When The Mail on Sunday visited the 87-acre club last week it was virtually deserted except for a team of gardeners readying three pristine fields for the start of the season on May 5. The club, founded in 1911, is the third-oldest in America. Prince William played in a charity match here to celebrate its centennial during an official visit to California with wife Kate four months after their wedding in 2011.
Richard Mineards, society columnist for the Montecito Journal, said: ‘People still talk about how William scored five goals and raised $600,000 for charity with tickets selling for $4,000.’
Harry played for the Los Padres team, headed by his friend Figueras, during the 2022 season.
Mineards said: ‘Of course, Harry playing at the club frequently, as he does, adds nicely to the mix.
‘When he played with Los Padres, attendance shot up. He is quite affable. When I asked him what I should call him, he said, ‘Harry.’ The club is an extraordinary mix of millionaires, billionaires, celebrities and now the Royal Family.’
Members told The Mail on Sunday that they are unsure if Harry will play this summer or if he intends to bring the Netflix crew along. ‘No one knows anything when it comes to Harry,’ one told me. ‘He deals directly with the owners of the club.’
While celebrities like Sylvester Stallone, Rob Lowe and Tommy Lee Jones are regular fixtures at the club today, its connections with Hollywood go back to the 1920s. Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin, then 34, created one of the first scandals when he arrived to play accompanied by his 15-year-old pregnant girlfriend, child actress Lita Grey.
More recently, the club was abuzz when member Lyndon Lea, a British multi-millionaire investor famed for his prowess on the field, shocked locals with wild tales of his partying.
Despite the glamour around the sport, Ms Astor is not convinced the show will be a ratings success
As far as the horses go, they receive star treatment, and no wonder when a championship- winning mount can be sold for as much as £200,000
The Lancashire-born boss of private equity firm Lion Capital was renowned for hosting parties at his Montecito mansion including one event which allegedly saw sushi being served to guests off the bodies of semi-naked women.
A source said: ‘After another party the talk was that he had 100 naked girls wearing nothing but body paint, but people could have been exaggerating.’
Lea was 46 when he wed 23-year-old model Sophie Dickens in 2015 at a lavish safari-themed wedding held at the Four Seasons Safari Lodge in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. The pair met at a polo match when she was 18.
While Harry’s show may well highlight the physical dangers of the game, it remains to be seen whether it will reveal more gruesome details, like those who have died on the playing fields of Santa Barbara.
In 1977, Lisle Nixon, a club manager, died in what one member would describe only as ‘a tragic accident’. Prince Harry has played in a memorial game in his honour.
As far as the horses go, they receive star treatment, and no wonder when a championship- winning mount can be sold for as much as £200,000.
‘They are treated like gold,’ says Ms Astor. ‘If they are injured they get whirlpool therapy and infra-red light therapy. When the season is under way, ponies are flown between venues on private jets which have been modified to have padded horse stalls.’
Despite the glamour around the sport, Ms Astor is not convinced the show will be a ratings success. ‘It feels like Harry is clutching at straws. If he doesn’t focus on the sex side of things, and I don’t think he will, then you’re left with a show about privileged people playing an elitist sport, which few people are interested in.’
As filming for the series continues, Meghan, who is also listed as an executive producer, might want to change her footwear – she was pictured on Friday wearing towering stiletto heels as she walked across the turf.
With the Sussexes’ Netflix deal set to end next year, it is clear they need a hit to keep their Hollywood dreams alive. Only time will tell if a series about a sport embraced by the privileged few will be it.
Additional reporting by Peter Sheridan