London: Prince Charles continued to financially support the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they stepped down as senior members of the British royal family, according to financial accounts released Thursday.
Prince Charles’s office, Clarence House, published in its annual accounts that Charles paid his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, and their families, a sum of $6.3 million. The annual report covers the period from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021. It’s not broken down by family.
Harry previously had told Oprah Winfrey that his family “literally cut me off financially” in the first quarter of 2020. He said he had to use money left to him by his mother, Princess Diana, to help pay for security for his family.
A spokesman for Clarence House told the BBC that “the Prince of Wales allocated a substantial sum” to Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess, last year “to support them” with their transition in stepping down as senior members of the British royal family and relocating to California.
“That funding ceased in the summer of last year. The couple are now financially independent,” he said.
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, spoke with Oprah Winfrey about turning away from life as senior royals in a wide-ranging interview that aired on March 7. (The Washington Post)
A spokesman for the Sussexes told The Washington Post that it was inaccurate to suggest a contradiction and that Harry’s comments were “in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in U.K., which starts annually in April.”
Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, also published its annual royal accounts, which included figures on ethnic diversity of its staff for the first time.
The figures showed that 8.5 percent of its staff members are from an ethnic minority background, a far lower proportion than in the London population, where it is just under 40 percent, or in the country in general, which the latest census estimated to be 13.5 percent. Washington Post
