When Prince Harry and Meghan set up their new home in Montecito, California, they received a seriously generous gift from filmmaker and director Tyler Perry, with an incredibly sweet meaning behind it

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step back as full-time working royals, they initially hoped they would be able to continue representing the late Queen – and living in the UK – in a part-time capacity. However, the royal family quickly decided that this half-in, half-out model wouldn’t work, and a full break was made – which included the loss of their police security.

At the time their security team was pulled borders were closing due to the spreading Covid pandemic and the couple’s location had also been published leaving them feeling vulnerable and needing to find a safe haven urgently. Harry and Meghan eventually found this in an unexpected new friend – filmmaker Tyler Perry – who gave them a place to stay and a private security detail. When the couple eventually found their own home, the Hollywood mogul then presented them with a seriously generous housewarming gift, which had a special meaning behind it.

The special gift was a grand piano, that came with a note to “Write the soundtrack for your life,” which currently sits in the living room of Harry and Meghan’s Montecito mansion – per an interview the Duchess conducted with The Cut magazine around the time she was launching her Archetypes podcast.

Perry’s generosity towards the couple was clear from the first time he made contact – around the time of their 2018 wedding – when he offered support if they ever needed it, despite never having met the pair. In 2020, when the couple were left without a secure home, they finally reached out to the Hollywood mogul, who immediately offered them his Beverly Hills mansion and private security.

Meghan said in her bombshell 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that this had given them much-needed “breathing room” to find their feet as a family and figure out their next steps. Perry has been candid about why he chose to help the couple, despite not being acquainted with them, and has thrown his support behind them on multiple occasions. In an interview with The Today Show, he said “What I know about the two of them – and I wish the world knew – how much these two people love each other. They found each other, out of all these odds against them finding each other, they found each other. The love they have is really, really moving and I wanted to do anything I could to support them.”