Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's life will be funded by £34m fortune
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new life will be funded from their £34million private fortune – as they face losing £5m handouts from the royal purse when they quit as senior royals
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to split time between UK and North America
- Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a statement this evening on Instagram
- Where does their money come from and will they still have it if they move?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could be walking away from an estimated £5.5 million in Royal funds after they announced they would be ‘stepping back’ from their duties as senior Royals in a bid to become ‘financially independent’.
But just how do the couple, who have an estimated combined net worth of £34 million, fund their lavish lifestyle which in the past has included their six-week Christmas break to Canada and solo trips to the US, such as when Meghan flew to America to watch Serena Williams play tennis.
In terms of what the couple receive from the Royal household, it is thought that the Queen gives around £2 million to Prince Harry from the Crown.
Her Majesty pays Harry and William jointly £5 million from the £82 million annual Sovereign Grant, which is funded by the taxpayer, and handed to the most senior members of the royal family.
Meghan and Harry (pictured above on Tuesday) have an estimated joint net worth of £34 million
The Queen gives funds to Prince Harry and William which are split between the two brothers
He also received money from his father Prince Charles (pictured above) which is from the Duchy or Cornwall estate
The £5 million from their grandmother the Queen is not broken down between the royal siblings – but William is believed to get slightly more so Harry and his family probably receive around £2 million from the Crown.
The brothers also claim a further £3.16 million a year in ‘non-official expenditure’ and is likely to be split in similar proportions.
Another source of income for Prince Harry is his annual allowance from the profits generated his father’s £1.2 billion Duchy of Cornwall estate. Charles paid £4.9 million to his sons from that pot last year.
The couple have significant personal wealth they could live on.
Prince Harry’s net worth is estimated to be around £30 million. He inherited more than £20 million from his late mother Princess Diana and around £7m from his great-grandmother the Queen Mother, who paid it into a trust fund him
Meghan has a net worth of around £4 million herself, having earned £40,000 an episode on Suits.
She also made £150,000 per film appearance and similar amounts from fashion collections modelling each year. Her ‘Tig’ lifestyle blog was worth £60,000 a year to her before she shut it down when she announced she was Harry’s girlfriend. And she is also believed to have a valuable property in Toronto.
British taxpayers however could still be picking up a £600,000 annual security bill for the family.
The couple famously spent their Christmas period at a £10.7 million home in Vancouver Island.
The £10 million property where Meghan and Harry spent six weeks over Christmas and New Year
The couple have since announced that they will be splitting their time between the UK and Canada.
But living there could be more expensive than their lives in the UK.
The couple recently spent more than £2.4 million of taxpayers’ money refurbishing their Frogmore Cottage home – and buying a property of a similar standard in a Canadian city would cost significantly more.
Frogmore House was a gift from the Queen – but any Canadian home would likely be paid from their own pocket.
Harry, Meghan and baby Archie enjoyed all the luxuries on offer at a £10.7 million waterfront mansion in one of the most idyllic spots on Vancouver Island – and are even believed to have taken their two dogs over with them, too.
They were also seen out hiking locally with friends, including actress Abigail Spencer, a friend of former actress Meghan’s from her days on the television drama Suits, with Meghan even offering to take a picture for one stunned couple they met who were struggling with their selfie stick.
They also posted a picture on Instagram of a delighted Harry holding his son, Archie, taken during their holiday to the delight of fans on New Year’s Eve.
Vancouver also has a high ‘hipster’ and in 2018 Goop, the controversial lifestyle brand founded by Gwyneth Paltrow, held its annual ‘wellness summit’ in the city with meditation sessions, workouts, and yoga classes, a pursuit loved by Meghan.
Vancouver is the most expensive city in Canada for cost of living – and the luxury they are used in the United States will cost them millions of pounds. Toronto is the second most expensive.
Other costs to the couple include their security and the family is understood to have up to six permanent Metropolitan Police bodyguards, funded by the taxpayer.
The officers are estimated to earn more than £100,000 a year including overtime.
But when Harry was visiting Meghan in the early stages of their relationship, the security officers seen with him outside her apartment were thought to be Canadian, and therefore funded by Canadian taxpayers.
Whoever pays, the Sussexes would require police protection for the rest of their lives.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline that a move abroad would be a ‘huge undertaking’ and the security costs would be vast.
Harry and Meghan are pictured in Toronto in 2017 as they leave the wheelchair tennis at the Invictus Games in 2017
Harry, Meghan and Archie are understood to have up to six permanent Metropolitan Police bodyguards, funded by the taxpayer. The officers (pictured) are estimated to earn more than £100,000 a year including overtime
The couple recently spent more than £2.4million of taxpayers’ money refurbishing their Frogmore Cottage home
He said: ‘The speculation that they could withdraw from public life has been going for some time.
‘It was given even more substance by that unwise documentary they gave where they spoke about the pressures they felt in the royal family.
‘But Harry has a duty to the Queen.
‘Moving abroad is a huge undertaking, they will have to find a location that wants you, the security costs would be vast and impossible to estimate.’
Harry and Meghan also claim staffing costs, which are currently estimated at just under £1million a year.
Her Majesty pays Harry and William jointly £5 million from the £82 million annual Sovereign Grant, which is funded by the taxpayer
Prince Harry and Meghan are pictured with their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
They employ a private secretary, who can earn up to £146,000, and a nanny for Archie who would also command a six-figure salary. London ‘super nannies’ who work for the capital’s richest and most powerful families earn an average of £104,000, according to industry sources.
At Frogmore Cottage they have a housekeeper – but no chef because Meghan loves cooking – two personal assistants and two palace orderlies probably earning between £20,000 and £30,000 each.
While the couple haven’t completely quit and while it’s unlikely that the Royals would cut them off from the purse, they could lose money if they were completely stripped of their titles.
When Edward VIII abdicated he still received millions a year from the Duchy of Cornwall estate and it would be unlikely that Charles would cut off his youngest son from this seven-figure income.
Edward VIII gave up the throne because he wanted to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
He was king for 326 days before making a public radio broadcast where he said he wanted to abdicate so he could ‘marry the woman he loved.’
They would also keep their grace-and-favour Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, because it was a gift to them by the Queen.
However, they would be expected to pay for renovations and some of its upkeep and any more taxpayer-funded works would be banned.
They would keep the royal protection officers who protect them 24/7.
The Prince of Wales (pictured, alongside William, George and The Queen is already moving closer to adopting a modern ‘Prince Regent’ role, which would see him control day-to-day royal affairs while his mother remains monarch
Source: Read Full Article
