Prince Charles financially drained after giving Harry and William around $3.2 million each from his savings
Charles, the Prince of Wales is reportedly under financial strain. Per the Daily Mail, the 71-year-old king-in-waiting is allegedly financing not just Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but also Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
A former aide to Prince Charles told the Daily Mail, “His attitude is always just pay what needs to be paid and move on. It’s usually the path of least resistance when it’s to do with the boys.” While officially, the brothers and their households are funded out of Prince Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall estate, reportedly, Charles has had to dip into his own private reserves on several occasions.
At one point, per the article, Prince Charles was paying Harry and Meghan more than William and his family. However, that figure is now believed to be roughly equal. It is still an extraordinary sum of money, with Harry and William each receiving approximately £2.5 million ($3.2 million). The financial strain may soon end, of course, as reportedly, Prince Charles has informed the brothers that his funds are not inexhaustible and that there is a limit to how far and how much he can pay.
According to a source, the figures involved in providing for both boys have in recent times been flagged up to the Prince by his accounting staff on more than one occasion. “‘There’s usually a raised eyebrow, but the Prince always just signs them off,” said the source.
This news comes at a time when the Royal Family caught in the midst of a kerfuffle.
Frogmore Cottage, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle moved into in April 2019, just weeks before the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, while is technically the property of the crown, but because it’s listed as a historic property, £2.4 million ($3.1 million) of the renovation costs were covered by taxpayers. Prince Charles, however, reportedly provided the money for the “fixtures and fittings.”
Now, as the Sussexes plan to spend their time between Canada and England — Meghan is already in Canada, with the couple’s son, Archie, and their two dogs, having flown back to the Vancouver Island hideaway where the couple spent six weeks on a break from royal duties over the Christmas period — this expense on Prince Charles's part has also raised eyebrows. The queen is “privately unhappy” about the effort and money that went into fixing up the house for the couple, per reports.
The Sussexes earlier informed that they want to step back from royal duties, in order to be able to earn an income and become financially independent of the taxpayer.