Why Prince Harry might NOT have inherited £8m on his 40th birthday – and where the money may have gone
PRINCE Harry turned 40 last week and some reports said he would be receiving a staggering £8million on the milestone occasion.
The large sum of cash was thought to be coming from the late Queen Mother, who had included him in a Trust Fund created in 1994.
However, royal experts have now questioned if the Duke of Sussex received the eye-watering sum this month.
The Guardian claimed in April 2002 that both Prince William and Prince Harry would take home the £8million upon reaching their 40th birthdays.
They wrote: “In 1994 the Queen Mother placed two-thirds of her money fortune – an estimated £19m – into a trust fund for her great grandchildren, a gamble, at the age of 94, that she would live for another seven years and so avoid paying 40 per cent. That hurdle was cleared last year.”
According to the Gov website: “If you die within seven years of making a transfer into a trust your estate will have to pay Inheritance Tax at the full amount of 40 per cent.
“This is instead of the reduced amount of 20 per cent which is payable when the payment is made during your lifetime.”
It was estimated that the Queen Mother’s net worth was around £70million at the time.
The BBC added at the time that the money has largely come from “shrewd investments which include paintings, a valuable Faberge egg collection, china and jewellery, though most of this will be passed to the Queen as it is part of the royal collection.”
The Guardian claimed: “Of the trust fund, William and Harry are likely to share about £6m at the age of 21 – the bulk going to the younger son apparently to compensate for not becoming sovereign – and a further £8m when they reach 40.
“Princess Anne’s children Zara and Peter Phillips and Prince Andrew‘s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, together with Princess Margaret‘s children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, will also receive bequests running into several millions each.”
In their latest episode of Hello! Magazine A Right Royal Podcast, royal experts shared their confusion over the pot of money.
Broadcaster Victoria Murphy said: “The only solid information that exists is the information in that story.
“There’s no independently available information about this trust fund.
“We wouldn’t expect there to be because it’s private money belonging to the royals, not public money.
“To make things even more confusing, as the story has travelled through the Internet, it’s become he is getting £8million, when the original story said that was a share.”
Funding himself
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now supporting themselves financially after stepping down as senior royals in 2020.
The Duke of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey he and Meghan relied on the money he inherited from his mother, Princess Diana.
Although he did not reveal the sum during the chat, it is understood Harry was left about £6.5million ($9million) when his mother died 23 years ago.
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This increased to around £10million ($13.9million) on his 30th birthday after the original amount was invested and gathered interest.
Prince Harry has also earned money through his tell-all Spare memoir, the now-defunct £18million Spotify deal he signed with Meghan, and also their £75m Netflix deal.
Perfect timing for Prince Harry's £8million cash
IF Prince Harry did receive the cash, royal expert Hugo Vickers said the timing couldn't be better for the Sussexes.
Vickers told The Sun: “No doubt it would be helpful because I think he leads a very expensive lifestyle.
“Hopefully he will put the money to good use. £8million can disappear pretty fast in a place like Montecito.
“The couple have an enormous staff, a big house to maintain, and cars.
“Harry has to pay for his own security too which we know he takes very seriously.”
Harry’s birthday plans
The Duke, 40, celebrated his milestone birthday on September 15 at the couple’s family home with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
He then left his wife and kids to go on a “weekend getaway” with a few close friends, sources told The Sun.
It is not yet known where Harry went or who joined him on his lads’ holiday.
But the group is unlikely to include his brother William – as he and Harry have not spoken for more than two years.
It was reported that the band of brothers could have included Harry’s polo BFF Nacho Figueras, his “second dad” Mark Dyer and “party animal” pal Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip.
A timeline of Prince Harry's family feud
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.