Prince Charles bankrolled the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by a 'substantial sum' in the months following Megxit, despite Harry claiming his family 'literally cut me off financially'.
Royal accounts made public for the first time yesterday show that the future king continued to fund Harry and Meghan until the summer of last year from a £4.4million Clarence House pot used to support his two sons and their families.
This contradicts Harry's remarks when he told Oprah Winfrey that he stopped getting financial support from his family in the 'first quarter' of last year.
He even claimed he and his wife were reduced to living off what 'my mother had left me'.
Details of Charles's continued financial support for his estranged younger son came as both Clarence House and Buckingham Palace opened up their yearly financial accounts.
Prince Charles bankrolled the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by a 'substantial sum' in the months following Megxit, despite Harry claiming his family 'literally cut me off financially'. Pictured L-R: Charles, Meghan and Harry during Trooping the Colour in 2018
Royal accounts made public for the first time yesterday contradict Harry's remarks when he told Oprah Winfrey that he stopped getting financial support from his family in the 'first quarter' of last year. He even claimed he and his wife were reduced to living off what 'my mother had left me'. Pictured: Harry (left) and Meghan (centre) with Oprah Winfrey (right) during their explosive interview which aired in March
The newly-public accounts show that Charles continued to fund Harry and Meghan until the summer of last year from a £4.4million Clarence House pot used to support his two sons and their families. Pictured: Prince Charles at a roundtable event for The Prince's Trust Group in June 2021
Clarence House's annual review revealed that Charles's bill for the activities of both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – plus other expenditure including the prince's capital expenditure and transfer to reserves in 2020/2021 – was £4.4million.
This was a fall of £1.15million – around 21 per cent – from £5.6million in 2019/2020 – the last year the Sussexes were working royals.
The report provided no detailed breakdown of the figures and royal aides declined to elucidate further.
But what is clear from the independently audited accounts is that Harry and Meghan were still listed as receiving money from Charles's Duchy of Cornwall income, despite quitting the monarchy at the end of March last year.
A senior Clarence House spokesman said: '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. The couple are now financially independent.'
The spokesman added: 'I betray no confidence when I say they've been very successful in becoming financially independent.' And when quizzed on the discrepancy in Harry's remarks, the spokesman said: 'I wouldn't acknowledge that they are dramatically different. All I can tell you are the facts.'
Harry and Meghan have signed multi-million-pound deals with Netflix and Spotify, with the duke telling Miss Winfrey he secured these to pay for his family's 'security'.
Yet he claimed that when the couple moved to North America, he only had what Diana had left him – £7million at the time – and 'without that we would not have been able to do this'.
In the couple's explosive interview with Miss Winfrey in March, Harry gave a typically emotional description of his situation, saying: 'My family literally cut me off financially and I had to afford security for us... in the first quarter of 2020.
'But I've got what my mum left me – without that we would not have been able to do this.
'I think she [my mother] saw it coming. I certainly felt her present throughout this whole process.'
The couple emigrated first to Canada and then to California, where – despite their apparent penury – they bought an £11million family home in