Royal Family Comments On Prince Harry's Claim They 'Cut Me Off Financially'

Jun 24, 2021 by apost team

Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose to leave their roles as working royals back in March 2020, tensions have been high among the royal family. The controversial decision made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to leave has been dubbed "Megxit" and has garnered them a lot of negative press. 

This was further exacerbated after the couple sat down for a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, where they openly criticized the royal family and their culture. Among the many topics discussed, the Sussexes spoke of racist comments that were made before the birth of their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, cleared up rumors that had been circulating about in-fighting in the royal family, and spoke on the fact that they were cut off financially, requiring them to fund their own security for the safety of their family. This is what led to them signing major deals with Spotify and Netflix.

Now, the royal family's financial reports for the 2020-21 fiscal year, known as the Sovereign Grant Report, have been released. In discussing the report, a senior spokesperson for Clarence House made comments related to the Sussexes becoming financially independent, which has led some press to declare that a discrepancy between Harry's timeline of events and the facts of the fiscal report exist.

However, despite these claims, a spokesperson for the Sussexes clarified that there is no such discrepancy as Harry was referring to the fiscal year when he spoke of being cut off in the first quarter of 2020. Let's take a look at the claims.

In the March 2021 interview between Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Oprah Winfrey, one of the major topics of discussion was their choice to leave the royal family as working royals. Harry stated at the time, as reported by People, "my family literally cut me off financially." He went on to explain that's why he secured major deals with Spotify and Netflix, explaining:

"All I wanted was enough money to get security and keep my family safe."

Before landing the deals, the Sussexes were living off money that had been left to him by his mother, the late Princess Diana. He added:

"Without that, we wouldn't have been able to do this."

Among other topics discussed in the interview, the press has taken to picking apart the specific comments made by the Sussexes in their conversation with Oprah. 

Now that the Sovereign Grant Report — which is the royal family's financial report for 2020-21 — has been released, the press has zeroed in on an alleged discrepancy that exists between Harry's statement and the official report. A senior spokesperson for Clarence House stated, as reported by Hello!:

"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 are now financially independent."

When asked about the supposed discrepancy, the spokesperson said:

"I wouldn't acknowledge that they are dramatically different. All I can tell you are the facts.” 

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The spokesperson added that the Sussexes departure from the royal family was "a matter of enormous sadness to the family," before adding:

"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."

In response to the claims that there is a discrepancy in the timeline of when Harry says they were "cut off" to when the report shows, a spokesperson for the Sussexes told reporters, as reported by the BBC:

"You are conflating two different timelines and it's inaccurate to suggest that there's a contradiction.

"The duke's comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which starts annually in April."

With this timeline in mind, Harry's comments about being cut off in the "first [fiscal] quarter of 2020" tie in with the report, which outlines that they continued to receive money from Prince Charles until the summer of 2020 when the first fiscal quarter ended. When speaking about finances, it's common for business people to refer to the fiscal year.

The Sovereign Grant Report detailed the Sussexes public duties and some of their private costs weren't paid for by taxpayers but rather the Prince of Wales, due to him being heir to the throne. However, some of the couple's official expenses did come out of taxpayer money while they were working royals. The financial report also notes that the Sussexes reimbursed the Sovereign Grant £2.4 million for expenditure that was incurred due to the refurbishment of their home in the U.K. Frogmore Cottage.  

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