PRINCE HARRY and Meghan Markle have been able to earn money since stepping back as senior members of the Royal Family in 2020.
The pair no longer receive Royal Family funding, so how do they make their money and how much are they estimated to be worth?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will earn their own money
What is Prince Harry’s net worth in 2023?
Prince Harry is thought to have an impressive net worth of £48million.
He has been able to earn an impressive amount through his career as a royal as well as after stepping down from being a working royal.
He will have earned an impressive pay cheque after the release of his memoir Spare.
In 1994, The Queen Mother put away around £19million into a trust fund for her great grandchildren – which obviously includes William and Harry.
According to The Guardian, the brothers split £6million of this trust at age 21 and Harry took the majority of the money to “compensate for not becoming sovereign”.
When they reach 40 they reportedly get to split another £8million, but the other grandchildren, including Eugenie and Beatrice will get a few million pounds each.
As well as funds coming in from their great grandmother, Forbes reported that Princess Diana left her boys nearly £8million after taxes.
It was also set up that once Wills and Harry turned 25, they would start to receive around £340,000 a year
When Harry was a full-time working royal, he received an annual allowance from his dad.
In 2018, Charles paid £4.9million to Harry, William and their partners from the Duchy.
However, since Harry and Meghan stepped back from being senior royals, they have been financially cut off.
What is Meghan Markle’s net worth in 2023?
It is thought that Meghan Markle is worth a similar amount to her husband.
The pair are thought to share their money and often take on projects together.
Before she tied the knot with Harry, Meghan was worth an estimated £3.5million, thanks to her role in American drama Suits.
She earned a reported £500,000 pay-check for her role as Rachel Zane in legal drama Suits.
Following her marriage to a royal, she now has a 91-piece jewellery collection worth £600,000.
Does Prince Harry and Meghan Markle get any money from royal family?
Prince Harry and Meghan no longer receive any money from the royal family.
After stepping down as working royals in 2020, they now have a number of their own deals which is how they earn money.
They came to a Megxit deal with the late Queen which included:
- They will stop using their HRH titles – this does not mean they are stripped of them, but as they no longer represent the monarchy they will not use the title
- They will repay the taxpayers the £2.4million spent on the refurbishments on Frogmore Cottage
- The couple will keep their patronages and associations, but will now have to funded privately through them
- They no longer have access to the Sovereign Grant (public money), therefore all expenses will be paid by them
- King Charles will continue to help privately fund the couple
- This arrangement was reviewed after a year it came into affect in spring 2020
What does Prince Harry do for a living?
Since no longer being a working royal, Prince Harry has taken on a number of projects.
His most recentl project is releasing his tell-all memoir Spare.
What does Meghan Markle do for a living?
Before marrying into the royal family, Meghan worked as an actress.
She was best known for her role in hit TV series Suits.
How will Harry and Meghan earn money after Megxit?
The couple have said that they “value the ability to earn a professional income“.
In their website, which talks about their “new working model”, they mentioned setting up a charity.
The website said: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex take great pride in their work and are committed to continuing their charitable endeavours as well as establishing new ones.
“In addition, they value the ability to earn a professional income, which in the current structure they are prohibited from doing.
“For this reason they have made the choice to become members of the royal family with financial independence.
“Their Royal Highnesses feel this new approach will enable them to continue to carry out their duties for Her Majesty the Queen, while having the future financial autonomy to work externally.”
BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said: “There is a problem for members of the Royal Family – relatively senior ones, even if they say they’re no longer senior – getting jobs, because they are seen to monetise their brand and you run into a whole host of questions about conflict of interest”.
The pair struck deals with streaming platforms, Netflix and Spotify and Meghan has an original podcast on Spotify, called Archetypes.
The podcast’s about section reads: “We investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back”.
Meghan also signed a voiceover deal with Disney in return for a donation to a wildlife charity.
The Duchess of Sussex did a voiceover in return for a donation to Elephants Without Borders, an organisation that helps to track and protect the animals from poaching.
She narrated DisneyNature’s “Elephant” that begun streaming on Disney+ in April 2020.
What is the King’s Sovereign Grant and how much do senior royals get paid?
The Sovereign Grant is funding provided to support the official duties of the King and to maintain the occupied royal palaces.
The total Sovereign Grant for 2021-2 was £86.3million and it covers the costs for travel, security, staff and the upkeep of royal palaces.
According to the Duke and Duchess’s official website, they receive just five per cent of their funding from the Sovereign Grant.
It also includes a dedicated amount to fund the ten-year reservicing of Buckingham Palace.
Each person in the UK pays £1.24 per year towards the grant.
The Sussex household gets an estimated £2million a year from the Sovereign Grant.
How rich are the rest of the Royal Family?
Before her death in 2022, the Queen made £1.6billion a year and her husband, Prince Philip – who was born penniless in a kitchen in Corfu – was worth £51million at the end of his life.
King Charles’ private fortune is thought to be around £1.8million.
William’s personal wealth is understood to be partly thanks to a legacy from his great-grandmother the Queen Mother, who put the bulk of her estimated £70million fortune into a trust fund for her great-grandchildren in 1994, leaving William and his brother Harry with around £14million between them.
Kate Middleton is worth £8.8million and her private wealth is boosted by the many “freebies” gifted to the royal couple, from villas on the Caribbean island of Mustique to ski chalets.
