(Town & Country) When Harry and Meghan wed in last year’s televised spectacular, all the splendor of the Windsor family was on parade: a fairytale castle, a horse-drawn Ascot Landau, a palatial Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a trove of jewelry. Six months later, after the news came that they were expecting their first child, it was announced that they would soon move into a new home on the Windsor estate—a 10-room 19th-century residence called Frogmore Cottage—given to them by the queen.
A happy couple set for life? That depends on your definition of set. As sixth in line to the throne, Harry is certainly well rewarded. He is among the small group of “working royals” who earn an allowance for performing official duties. Harry received some $3 million last year for visiting charities and army units and serving as a goodwill ambassador.
That amount was supplemented by income from the $11 million or so he inherited from his mother, Princess Diana, and a few million bequeathed by his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother. And Meghan, now retired from her $50,000-an-episode role on the TV series Suits, reportedly has her own $5 million nest egg.
But these figures, while substantial, do not compare to the incomes of some in the couple’s social circle (Serena Williams, Sam Branson, etc.). And while Frogmore is undoubtedly well situated, the fact that their first home is a gift from Harry’s grandmother, as opposed to something they bought themselves, shows where the real money lies. It also hints at how unroyal circumstances can get for those further down the line.
Guessing how much Queen Elizabeth is worth has long been an English national pastime, but because so much of her wealth is tied up in unique trusts and almost unpriceable art treasures, it is hard to pin down an exact number. Last year the Sunday Times estimated it at around $500 million, making her just 344th on the Rich List of Britain’s wealthiest people.
She was only 10th among titled landowners. Both the Queen and Prince Charles possess large semiprivate ancestral landholdings that serve as wellsprings of their wealth. Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall, a portfolio of properties concentrated in southwest England, provides him with some $25 million a year, around $7 million of which goes to William and Harry for performing their royal duties. The Queen’s Duchy of Lancaster properties, mainly in the northwest, earn another $25 million or so, which she uses to pay for her own private needs, like running Balmoral and her horse racing ventures.
The Queen also bankrolls several family members, including her children Andrew, Anne, and Edward, as well as the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent, who, like William and Harry, are official working royals. Until recent times these family members were funded by the taxpayer. But in response to criticism of their featherbedded existences (in the ’70s one Labour MP famously called Princess Margaret “this expensive kept woman”), in 1992 the queen agreed to pay most of their expenses out of her own pocket.
Working royals who receive a private allowance from the Queen or the Prince do get some public money for themselves and their families as well, since a portion of their expenses are covered by the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which is currently around $110 million a year. That money is allocated by the royal household with government oversight. In 2017–’18 the grant paid for some $6.5 million in royal travel and related costs, while most of the rest went toward paying staff and repairing crumbling palaces.
The current system of allowances has been relatively stable in recent years, but those dependent on royal financial support—and those hoping to get some—will have to pray for continued generosity from Prince Charles when he becomes monarch. He has already hinted at a desire to have just half a dozen working royals, a setup that would inevitably disadvantage relatives further down the line of succession.
Those in jeopardy include Harry’s and William’s limelight-loving cousins the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie (eighth and ninth in line, respectively). The daughters of Prince Andrew (the Queen’s middle son and seventh in line) and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, benefit from a trust fund bequeathed by their great-grandmother, but because they currently perform no official royal duties they receive no public money.
A few years ago it was widely reported that they were seeking formal roles; their father, according to one palace insider, was lobbying for them to receive allowances and public money. The issue turned into a public row, and Prince Andrew took the unusual step of issuing a blunt statement clarifying that his wish was simply for his daughters to be “modern, working young women."
Both sisters hold regular jobs, which is probably for the best, as their chances of joining the ranks of working royals look slim. Even if Charles opts to keep the status quo, his rapidly growing crew of grandchildren will require housing, security, and education. So, even though Harry and Meghan having a new baby initially has no immediate impact on allowances, it does mean that there will ultimately be one more royal competing for attention and access to the family coffers.
Another part of the Windsor household has seen its stock fall in a more literal manner. The Queen’s first cousins Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent (36th in line), and his younger brother, Prince Michael of Kent (47th in line), have long been regarded as the poor relations of the family. After their father, Prince George, died in action during World War II, their mother received no public funding, and both brothers initially earned a living in the army, which did little to bolster their financial fortunes. But there were still bills to pay and appearances to keep up, and this could be done only with some private support from the Queen.
To keep the wolf from the door, the Kents have had to auction off furniture, jewelry, and other heirlooms, as well as dispose of their beloved country estates. The Duke of Kent sold his Buckinghamshire manor house, Coppins, in 1974, after its hefty running costs proved prohibitive, and Prince Michael followed suit in 2006, parting with his glorious Gloucestershire residence Nether Lypiatt. Both now live more modestly in apartments in the Kensington Palace complex, which has housed so many elderly royals it was dubbed the Aunt Heap.
Prince Michael has earned the unflattering sobriquet “Rent-a-Kent” for the way he is perceived to be cashing in on the royal name. His gaffe-prone wife, Princess Michael, has had an even rougher ride, gaining the nickname “Princess Pushy” for her brazen manner. She has developed a commercial sideline writing books about other royals, although by her own admission she isn’t immune to changes to the financial climate. While promoting her novel The Queen of Four Kingdoms in 2013, she confessed to the London Times that austerity had forced her to fly tourist class: “We’ve cut back dramatically. I mean, we never go out to dinner unless we go to somebody’s house. We never go to restaurants. That’s too extravagant.”
A new headache for today’s royals is how much public and government attention their personal finances receive, something Meghan and Harry are learning firsthand. After their wedding the tabloids were quick to speculate that some of the couple’s U.K. assets would come under scrutiny by the IRS, since, as an American citizen, Meghan is liable to be taxed on all her overseas earnings. Indeed, she might have to declare the value of some of her wedding presents, and income she receives from Harry’s personal funds could potentially be subject to U.S. taxes. But the gift of the new joint home will most probably escape the IRS, since royal country homes like the queen’s Balmoral estate are traditionally placed in tax-advantaged trusts.
The latest financial worry for the couple is the price of renovations to Frogmore Cottage, expenses that the Daily Mail griped would be “hidden from taxpayers.” The Daily Mirror also quoted a former royal guard warning about the extra expenditure on policing: “The costs of building and security arrangements could balloon to $6.5 million in the first year.”
Indeed, the permit application for renovating the landmarked building was kept private for security reasons, but a Kensington Palace spokesman said that only major structural work would be paid for with money from the Sovereign Grant, and that any decorating expenses would be footed by Harry and Meghan. Good news for the British taxpayer, because, as anyone who has ever done up a home in or near London knows, that process can cost a queen’s ransom.
