Prince Harry is set to get £8million when he turns 40 after the Queen Mother set aside a lump sum for her great-grandchildren 30 years ago.
A trust containing £19million was set up in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, when Prince Harry was just ten years old, to be distributed between all her grandchildren.
Allegedly they would receive the first payment on their 21st birthday and the second payment on their 40th birthday, with palaces sources claiming Harry received a larger amount than William.
A former Palace aide told the Times: ‘There was a trust fund set up at the time. It was a way in which the Queen Mother could set aside money for when her great-grandchildren were older and a way of passing a slice of her estate down in a tax-efficient way.
They continued: ‘It was a way in which some of her estate could be ring-fenced for them.’
On their 21st’s each brother would get £6million, this would increase to £8million on their 40th’s, which Harry will celebrate next week on 15 September.
It was believed that Prince William and Prince Harry, along with their cousins the Princess Royal‘s children, Zara and Peter Phillips, and the Duke of York’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, together with Princess Margaret‘s children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, would be the beneficiaries of the fund.
The fund was allegedly created to help the Queen Mother side step paying any inheritance tax on her very generous gift to her great-grandchildren.
In April it was revealed that Prince Harry had already made £22million from his book Spare, after it became the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book ever after being published by Penguin Random House in January 2023.
Harry used the tell-all book to make various claims about his family including that William called Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’, and that Charles refused to allow Meghan to join Harry in Scotland as the late Queen was dying.
In 2023 Royal author Tom Bower claimed that Meghan had been ‘surprised and disappointed’ after realising that Harry had ‘very little money’ – an estimated worth of £35million.
Discussing the Duchess’ misconceptions about the Royal Family, the author – who wrote the 2022 book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors – described the former Suits actress as ‘money-obsessed’.
The expert said: ‘Her great surprise and disappointment was that Prince Harry had very little money.
‘She had imagined he would be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, and she is having to make up for it now.’
While they were still senior working royals, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were mostly funded by King Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall estate.
Following the couple’s decision to leave the Firm, it was reported Charles’ £1.2billion Duchy of Cornwall estate paid his youngest son around £2.3million-a-year on average.
However, the couple said this sum covered 95 per cent of their office expenditure.
The remaining five per cent of their annual income came from the taxpayer-funded £82m annual Sovereign Grant, which is handed to the most senior members of the royal family.
Since quitting the firm and heading over the pond to the US, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s joint bank account has been boosted to the tune of £100million – despite their increasingly diminished popularity.
Following their Oprah interview, which they were not paid for, a string of lucrative deals and jobs followed.
First came the £25million Spotify deal for Archewell Audio, then a £81million Netflix deal for their fly-on-the wall series and then a £32million four-book deal starting with Spare, now an international bestseller.
There have also reportedly been big money appearance fees for speeches and appearances at various events in the US, including a JP Morgan summit.
Every Prince needs a castle and it seems the pair bought well, snapping up a £7.5million mortgage on their nine-bed, 13 bathroom, £11million mansion in Montecito, California.
Harry and Meghan are also able to make money through the lucrative after dinner speaking circuit.
GDA Speakers, whose clients include Nicole Kidman and Diane Keaton, said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would attract much higher fees than regular celebrities, even without their HRH titles.
Last November wealthy Americans spent up to $1million (£800,000) per ticket to rub shoulders with Prince Harry and Markle at a glittering New York gala.
