Forever looking out. Following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s January 2020 announcement that they were stepping back from their royal duties, the prince’s family cut the pair off financially. Luckily, the late Princess Diana left a large sum of her assets to her youngest son, according to a 2014 report by Forbes. When Harry turned 30 in 2014, he reportedly received more than £10 million from his mother’s estate — which translates into roughly $13.8 million dollars, save for interest and taxes.
“I had to afford security for us,” the prince, now 36, shared during a CBS tell-all interview with Markle, 39, on Sunday, March 7, explaining the reasoning behind the couple’s partnerships with Spotify and Netflix. “[I was cut off] in the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mom left me and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
Besides Harry, Diana’s will listed several others with whom she wanted to share her wealth. While Harry and his brother, Prince William, were the chief heirs of her estate, Diana’s beloved butler, Paul Burrell, as well as 17 of her godchildren, were also beneficiaries, according to a 2020 report by Worthy.
Diana’s mother, Frances Ruth Shand Kydd, and her sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, were named the estate’s executors and trustees, per Diana’s last will and testament. The gross value of her estate was £21,711,485, or around $30 million dollars.
Though documentation stated the money was to be distributed when her sons turned 25, William and Harry’s monetary distributions were held until they turned 30. Still, the brothers were able to start receiving interest on their trust funds earlier.
Born into an aristocratic family, Diana was a member of the British royal family for 15 years. Prior to marrying Prince Charles in 1981, the U.K. native worked part-time as an assistant in a London nursery school. In August 1997, the beloved princess died in a car crash.
Her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, also died in the accident. At the time, the three were being pursued by the paparazzi.
During the CBS interview, Harry talked about how his mother would have felt seeing his family mistreated by the U.K. media and the royal establishment.
“I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out, and very sad. But ultimately, all she’d ever want is for us to be happy,” Harry said. “I think she saw it coming. And I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”
Is Prince Harry refusing to mend relationships with the Royal Family? Us Weekly editors dish the details with True Royalty TV Editor-in-Chief Nick Bullen.
