LONDON (CU)_ During Harry and Meghan’s tell-all TV interview with Oprah Winfrey in early March, the Duke of Sussex claimed that he stopped getting financial support from his father after the couple stepped away from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family, and that he and his wife could only sustain their lifestyle through the estate left behind by his mother Princess Diana. “I’ve got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this,” he told Oprah.
However, just a few months after royal accounts, which were made public, revealed that the Prince of Wales gave the Sussexes a “substantial sum” during the months following their decision to step down from royal duties and be financially independent. According to the statements, over the past financial year, Harry and Meghan, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge received almost £4.5 million from Charles, which as a 20 per cent drop from the £5.6 million received in the previous year. These accounts also disclosed that the £2.4 million reimbursement of the taxpayer taken by Harry and Meghan fir the renovation of Frogmore Cottage included rent for more than 18 months.
Now, a royal insider has claimed that the Prince of Wales may be ‘relieved’ of the fact that the Sussexes are no longer on his payroll. “I imagine Prince Charles will be relieved as they will be off his payroll now, and the British public will be relieved because they can pay back what they owe now on Frogmore Cottage, so it’s a win-win situation,” Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told the Daily Mail.
Until last summer, the Prince Charles’ two sons and their families had been receiving money from his income from his Duchy of Cornwall estate, which includes an extensive portfolio of financial investments and property, covering more than 52,000 hectares of land across 21 counties. “The current Prince of Wales chooses to use a substantial proportion of his income from the Duchy estate to meet the cost of his public and charitable work as well as the public and private lives of his family, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and their children,” read the Duchy of Cornwall website.
