The royal family has finally responded to claims made by Prince Harry in his interview with Oprah Winfrey in March that his family “literally cut me off financially” in the first quarter of 2020.
It comes as the royal household published its annual financial statement, the Sovereign Grant Report, for the financial year 2020-21 on Thursday.
Harry also said during the interview that he had what his mother Diana, Princess of Wales left him – £7 million at the time – and “without that, we would not have been able to do this”, and he went for the Netflix and Spotify deals to pay for his security.
A senior Clarence House spokesperson said: “As we’ll all remember in January 2020 when the Duke and Duchess announced that they were going to move away from the working royal family, the Duke said that they would work towards becoming financially independent.
“The Prince of Wales allocated a substantial sum to support them with this transition. That funding ceased in the summer of last year, and the couple is now financially independent.”
Quizzed on the discrepancy in the Duke’s remarks, the spokesperson said: “I wouldn’t acknowledge that they are dramatically different. All I can tell you are the facts.”
He described the couple’s departure from the working royal family as “a matter of enormous sadness to the family” and added: “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. I betray no confidence when I say they’ve been very successful in becoming financially independent.”
Harry and Meghan‘s public duties and some private costs were mostly funded by the Prince of Wales from his private £22 million-a-year Duchy of Cornwall income – not taxpayer funds but money which Charles receives because of his position as heir to the throne.
Taxpayers paid for the couple’s official travel, and some of their office costs, as well as an undisclosed amount for their security when they were full-time working royals.
The annual report also includes a £2.4m payment from the Sussexes to reimburse the Sovereign Grant for expenditure incurred on the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, most of which was recognised as income in the year.
Clarence House’s annual review revealed that the Prince’s bill for the Cambridges’ and the Sussexes’ activities, plus other expenditure including Charles’ capital expenditure and transfer to reserves in 2020/2021, was £4.452 million, a fall of around 21 per cent or £1.155 million from £5.607 million in 2019-2020.
The report provided no detailed breakdown of the figures.
Charles’ annual income from the Duchy of Cornwall profits fell to £20.4 million – a drop of £1.8 million or 8 per cent.
His Sovereign Grant funding dropped from £1.8 million in 2020 to just £0.4 million this year.
