Prince Harry claimed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March that his family “literally cut me off financially” in the first quarter of 2020, and the royal family has finally responded.
The announcement comes on the heels of the royal household’s annual financial statement, the Sovereign Grant Report, for the fiscal year 2020-21, which was released on Thursday.
During the interview, Harry also mentioned that he had what his mother Diana, Princess of Wales left him – £7 million at the time – and that “we would not have been able to do this” if it hadn’t been for the Netflix and Spotify deals, which he used to pay for his security.
According to a senior Clarence House spokesperson, “When the Duke and Duchess announced their decision to leave the working royal family in January 2020, the Duke stated that they would work toward becoming financially self-sufficient.
“The Prince of Wales gave them a large sum of money to help them through this transition. The couple’s funding ended in the summer of last year, and they are now financially self-sufficient.”
When asked about the contradiction in the Duke’s remarks, the spokesperson responded: “I wouldn’t say they’re drastically different. I can only give you the facts.”
He described the couple’s departure from the royal family’s working class as “amazing.” “”But the Prince wanted to help make this work, [and] allocated a substantial sum to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to help them with that transition,” the statement continued. When I say they’ve been very successful in becoming financially independent, I don’t mean it lightly.”
The Prince of Wales funded most of Harry and Meghan’s public duties and some private costs from his private £22 million-a-year Duchy of Cornwall income – not taxpayer funds, but money that Charles receives as the heir to the throne.
When the couple was full-time working royals, taxpayers paid for their official travel and some of their office costs, as well as an undisclosed amount for their security.
The Sussexes paid the Sovereign Grant £2.4 million to reimburse the Sovereign Grant for expenditure on the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, the majority of which was recognized as income in the year.
The Prince’s bill for the Cambridges’ and Sussexes’ activities, plus other expenditure including Charles’ capital expenditure and transfer to reserves in 2020/2021, was £4.452 million, down around 21% or £1.155 million from £5.607 million in 2019-2020, according to Clarence House’s annual review.
The figures were not broken down in any detail in the report.
Charles’ annual income from the Duchy of Cornwall profits dropped by £1.8 million, or 8%, to £20.4 million.
His Sovereign Grant funding has decreased from £1.8 million in 2020 to £0.4 million this year.
