Question About Prince Harry’s Future Still ‘Worries’ King Charles
Although Prince Harry is now years removed from royal life, he’s still very much a topic of conversation behind palace walls. According to a new biography, his father, King Charles III, still “worries,” along with staff, about what will happen in the future if and when the Duke of Sussex’s finances take a turn for the worse.
‘What is going to happen when all the money runs out’ is what worries King Charles
In his new biography, Catherine The Princess of Wales, out Aug. 6, 2024, author Robert Jobson said the king “worries” about what could happen when Harry and Meghan Markle don’t have any money.
He suggested in a Daily Mail extract that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “biggest paydays” are behind them. This is where the king’s concern comes in.
“Now that the public have wearied of their constant complaints, they’re trying to find an income stream (jam, anyone?) that doesn’t involve dishing dirt on the Royal Family,” the author said.
“The ‘Harry problem,’ as it’s known among Palace staff, continues to plague the King. ‘What worries His Majesty, and his top team,’ says a Palace official, ‘is what is going to happen when all the money runs out.’”
“The Sussex-shaped void in the Royal Family has never loomed so large, yet there is no question of them stepping in to help. [Prince] William remains adamant about that,” Jobson said elsewhere in the extract.
“As for King Charles, he’s let it be known that he’ll never shut the door on his second child, though there seems little chance of a meaningful reconciliation for now.”
Harry and Meghan have millions of dollars in the bank
King Charles may not get an answer to his question about Harry for some time—years, maybe even decades. The reason is that he and Meghan have a hefty amount of cash in the bank.
Their joint net worth is estimated to be $60 million, and it’s due to get bigger soon. Harry will inherit around $9 million from his late great-grandmother when he turns 40 in September 2024.
The pair inked a series of highly lucrative media deals after leaving royal life and relocating to Montecito, California, in 2020. First came a partnership with Netflix, announced in September of that year. Harry and Meghan signed a multiyear deal to produce multiple projects across various programming types.
Reported to be valued at $100 million, the deal’s since seen the release of Harry & Meghan, a docuseries about the couple’s decision to leave royal life, as well as Heart of Invictus and Live to Lead. Next up is the film adaptation of Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake novel, which they’re producing.
Two months after announcing their Netflix deal, Harry and Meghan revealed they’d inked one with Spotify. However, the multiyear partnership reported to be worth anywhere from $15 to $25 million, ended in 2023 after one season of Meghan’s “Archetypes” podcast (via Forbes).
Since then, Meghan’s announced her new lifestyle brand, American Rivieria Orchard, which has yet to launch, as well as a Netflix show about gardening, cooking, and entertaining. She also has a new podcast in the works with Lemonada Media. As for Harry, he has his own Netflix show on the way about polo.
The king previously told Prince Harry there wasn’t ‘enough money’ for Meghan
In Spare, Harry recalled how his father remarked that “There’s not enough money to go around,” at the mention of Meghan quitting acting to be a working royal. At the time, she’d been playing Rachel Zane on the USA legal drama for more than six years.
“He explained. Or tried to,” Harry wrote, sharing what King Charles told him. “‘I can’t pay for anyone else. I’m already having to pay for your brother and Catherine.’”
The comment stunned Harry. “That was his job. That was the whole deal. We agreed to serve the monarch, go wherever we were sent, do whatever we were told,” he wrote.
It quickly became “clear,” however, “that this wasn’t about money.” Harry thought his dad couldn’t handle “someone new dominating the monarchy, grabbing the limelight, someone shiny and new coming in and overshadowing him. And Camilla. He’d lived through that before, and had no interest in living through it again.”
Meanwhile, Jobson’s book claimed that despite any financial concerns, sources close to the royal family revealed King Charles did give Harry a “substantial sum.” Not from the Duchy of Cornwall, which was no longer an option. Rather, a final payment in the first quarter of the 2020-21 tax year.
