On Wednesday afternoon, London time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their intention to step down from their roles as senior members of the British Royal Family.
This will involve becoming financially independent, they explained, and splitting their time between England and North America.
Their announcement, however, left more questions than it answered.
Here are all the questions we have about their current financial income, and their future funding, answered.
How do Meghan Markle and Prince Harry currently earn money?
As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new website states, 95 per cent of their funding is derived from income allocated by Charles, The Prince of Wales.
The other five per cent comes from the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which covers operating costs including the employment of members of their office. Up to now, this saw Prince Harry be given AUD $9.54 million annually from the Queen as well as $6 million in “non-official expenditure” and $1.9 million in staffing costs.
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The Quicky
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"It is understood that the new arrangements will still allow the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to have access to the aforementioned funds they receive from Prince Harry's dad, Prince Charles.
Furthermore, they will also continue to receive taxpayer money to fund their security by the Metropolitan Police."
None of that has been confirmed, and indeed should not be published to suggest it's a fact. If anything, much of the current negotiations will be around these issues - it's incredibly bad optics for Charles to fund their lifestyles if they choose to work for personal profit (the Duchy of Cornwall is derived from income from feudal land - so it's difficult to suggest the public won't be up in arms about this - it's not really "private possessions" in the modern sense of the word), and taxpayers of any country they choose to make a base may also take a very dim view to having to pay for their security.
The royal family exist because their public wish them to do so. If their public decide they are funding a couple who should be using their already-got, personal wealth to fund their own lifestyles, the royal family could be in trouble. Harry and Meghan are already financially well-off. Let them be completely independent (of titles, duties and privilege) and free to do whatever they want, on their own dime.
The Royal Family will give them what they want as they are threatening (via friends) to give a tell all interview which will reflect badly on the RF. Also, Harry is always moaning about his fragile mental health and his mum, so the powers that be won't want to appear vindictive.
thought I saw him driving an UBER last night