EYEBROWS were raised when Prince Harry claimed to Oprah Winfrey he had been “cut-off financially” by dad Prince Charles – at the ripe old age of 36.
Harry, who’s now got a job as the “chief impact officer” at a Silicon Valley startup with a rumoured seven figure salary, moaned to Oprah about how Prince Charles had refused to answer his calls and had cut off his security.”[My] family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us,” he told the US talk show queen.
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Sun columnist Karen Brady was among people asking why, in his mid-30s and a father himself, Harry was even receiving cash from dad?
But 29-year-old mum-of-one Amber Burton from Ilkeston, Derbys., is firmly Team Harry.
Like the Duke of Cambridge, she too is financed by the Bank of Mum and Dad – although her mother Janice says: “I don’t have quite the same amount of cash as Charles!”
Amber, mum to Oscar, two, has never stood on her own two feet, with pensions administrator Janice, 56, and retired fireman and caretaker dad Ray, 59, still paying for her phone bill, car insurance and lots more – including the deposit on all three of the houses she’s rented, a fridge freezer and a bed for her little boy.
“What can I say?” says Amber, who is in a relationship with roofer Steven Keeton, 31. “I’m not great with money.
“I totally understand where Harry is coming from – I rely on my parents and I would be lost without them.”
But whereas Prince Harry’s complaints were related to fears that his family’s security would be compromised without dad’s cash (he’s now dipped into mum Princess Diana’s £10m inheritance), Amber’s is a little less dramatic.
She says: “I don’t work at the moment, I’m a full-time mum although looking for a job, but when I did I was awful with cash.
“In 2011 I was a receptionist at an accountants and as soon as I got the money – boom – it was gone.
“I’d spend it all in the first week on clothes.
“I loved heading into town to get going out dresses at my favourite shops like New Look and River Island.
“I’d buy makeup too.
“I couldn’t budget. I don’t know why. Mum and dad are good with money and my brother, Kimberley, 31, and Connor, 25, are too.
“Mum says I haven’t got my head screwed on.”
Amber claims her recklessness with money started when she started getting paid in her late teens.
She told how, aged 19, Janice started popping Amber a bit of extra cash to get by – even taking her on shopping trips so she could get the clothes she loved so much.
“She was paying for a lot,” Amber says. “But she needed to. I had no money.”
Her mum and dad bought her her first car, a £2k Mini Cooper, when she was 19, just after passing her test. “I loved it,” she says. “But in my early 20s I wrote it off while driving it down a country road and hitting black ice on a sharp bend.
“So a few months later – when I was pregnant with Oliver – they bought me a much more practical car with five doors for around £3k.
Last Christmas Amber was stunned, having not asked for anything, when they presented her with a “big box”.
“I opened it and inside there were keys to a Kia Ceed,” she says. “I was stunned. It costs about £4k and I was so, so grateful. There were tears streaming down my face.
“It’s perfect for me and Oscar.
“They bought Connor and Kimberley stuff too – but not a car.”
In addition to the £9k her parents have spent on cars for her, Amber’s mum and dad also pay her £70-a-month car insurance and £40-a-month phone bill, totalling more than £1.3k a year
“They just always have,” she says. “I don’t really know why. I suppose I should be paying it myself at my age. But my mum took an iPhone out in my name and just kept on paying.”
For a long time, before meeting Steven, Amber was on Universal Credit so receiving a limited amount of money each month. After paying bills and rent she didn’t have much disposable cash.
“They then paid for clothes for Oscar and just other bits and bobs,” says Amber. “I think they knew I needed the help and wanted to be there.
“They’d buy groceries and toys and so on.
“Sometimes they’ll spot I haven’t got something and just get it without telling me.
“I am a bit ashamed when I think about how much they’ve spent on me but I know they love me.”
She says she would love to be more independent – but hasn’t quite achieved it yet.
“I think it is mad they pay for a lot of this for me when I am 29,” she says.
“I would love it if I was more independent and could pay for more stuff.
“I haven’t really told my mates exactly how much my mum and dad help me but they did know about the car at Christmas and thought it was a really nice gift.
“I know some people, when they hear about it, will think it is weird. To be fair they do help with a lot of things and I know I should be better at budgeting.
