When the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex quit official duties, the Queen ordered them to stop using the word
‘royal’. So, after publicly whining about how neither the Queen nor the
Government owned the word across the world, the California-based pair
reluctantly changed the name of their charitable organization from Sussex Royal
to the MWX Foundation. The new title covered their surnames, Markle and Windsor,
with the X thought to be a short form for Sussex.
Now, however, MWX Foundation,
of which Prince Harry was director, has been closed down, with the final
liquidation report revealing that costs of £130,583 were incurred on winding it
up.
Documents published on Tuesday
disclosed that the charity received bills of £92,849 in liquidators’ fees and
£37,734 in legal fees.
The expense to the charity
amounted to £65,181. This is because liquidation costs were agreed at £27,447
with liquidators Smith Williamson.
A note to liquidators reports:
‘Time costs exceeded the estimate due to the communications with the Charity
Commission, the current and former trustees and various discussions, inquiries
with third parties and protracted correspondence with HMRC to obtain tax
clearance… additional costs have been met by a third party. The remaining
time costs are to be written off.’ It doesn’t disclose the identity of the
‘third party’.
There was a £213,000 surplus
from the closure. This was paid in the form of a ‘grant’ to a ‘not-for-profit
enterprise’, understood to be Harry and Meghan’s eco-travel firm, Travalyst
Ltd.
Liquidators state: ‘In
accordance with the terms of the grant agreement, we receive income and
expenditure reports on the use of the grants funds to show they are utilized in
accordance with the charity’s objects.’
The couple have started a new
charitable foundation, Archewell, whose name originates from the Greek arche,
meaning source of action, which inspired the name of their three-year-old son,
Archie.
