“Meghan came into the royal family with the expectation that she’d be able to milk them as if they were the fatted calf,” claims one expert.BY SOPHIE HANSONAPRIL 2, 2024 12:02 PMGETTY IMAGESSHARE

They reside in a $14 million mansion in the exclusive neighborhood of Montecito in California and were, up until 2020, working members of the British royal family. But Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s net worth may not be as rosy as we once thought.

Before leaving the British royal family, the Duke of Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍 had been well-supported by his father, King Charles III. There were even reports at the time that Charles offered to pay for Meghan and Harry’s security fees when they moved to California, though Harry denied those reports in his and Meghan’s interview on CBS’ Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special in 2021.

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In May 2020, the Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍es set out to repay taxpayer costs for those Frogmore Cottage renovations themselves—and they planned to make those payments over the next decade or so, according to reports. The total refurbishment costs were estimated at approximately £2.4 million (or $3.05 million), meaning they would pay around £18,000 (roughly $22,000) a month moving forward.

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In 2024, Markle geared up to launch her own lifestyle brand to rival Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop with American Riviera Orchard. In a trademark application extension obtained by DailyMail.com, the Suits alumnus detailed her brand will sell household goods, stationery, bed linen, cookware, gardening implements, beverages, foods, and condiments, in addition to what appears to be a skin or body care range. “Fragrance sachets; Lavender Sachets; Non-medicated skin care preparations; Bath and shower gels and salts…non-mediated hair preparations; Bath soap; Bar soap: Non-medicated hand soaps: Body creams: Bath oil: Body lotions: Cosmetics [and] Body Oil.”

This is all to say that there might be some money woes for the former royal couple, according to experts. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s net worth may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s net worth

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s net worth combined is estimated at $60 million, per livemint.com. But British-Jamaican socialite Lady Colin Campbell said things aren’t going as planned. “[Meghan] blames everybody else for her errors,” Colin Campbell told GB News. “I’ve been told that she is enraged because no matter what she does, it flops, and no matter what Catherine does, it succeeds.”

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“That’s infuriating for her. Meghan came into the royal family with the expectation that she’d be able to milk them as if they were the fatted calf, and that she was going to be able to end up having a billionaire lifestyle,” she continued.

“She has a billionaire lifestyle without the money,” Campbell stated. “They’re quickly running into serious problems financially. Every deal collapses, and all these phantasmagoric figures that they were bandying about will never reach their bank account.”

This could be in reference to the Duke and Duchess’ failed Spotify deal from 2023. The exact reason why the streaming giant and the Sus𝓈ℯ𝓍es parted ways is unknown.  A joint statement from the couple’s company, Archewell, and Spotify had “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” per the New York Post published on June 15, 2023.

“Spotify was supposed to release a statement saying how great it was to work with Meghan, but they didn’t,” a source told Us Weekly and added that the team behind the scenes “had been pushing Harry and Meghan for more content over the last year.”

Spotify executive and The Ringer CEO Bill Simmons said: “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” Simmons said. “‘The F—king grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … F—k them. The grifters.”

According to BBC, 95 percent of Harry’s income before he left the royal family came from his father, King Charles III, who at the time controlled the Duchy of Cornwall, a portfolio of property and financial investments that brought in £21.6 million  (or $29.8 million) in 2019. From 2018 to 2018, Harry’s annual allowance from Duchy, which he shared with Meghan, was £5 million or $6.9 million. This paid for Harry and Meghan’s public duties as working members of the royal family, such as wardrobe and travel, as well as private costs.

The other 5 percent of Harry’s income came from the Sovereign Grant, which is tax-payer funded and paid from the government to the royal family to cover expenses for official duties, as well as the royal palace. According to the BBC, the grant, which is also funded from crown estate profits and commercial properties owned by the crown, is worth £82.4 million (or $114,004 million.)

After Meghan and Harry left the royals, they announced their plan to be “financially independent” and no longer take money from streams like the Sovereign Grant. “They will no longer receive public funds for Royal duties,” Kensington Palace said in a statement in September 2020.