CASH AND HARRY
Harry & Meghan will become ‘royals for hire’ after disastrous Netflix & Spotify deals & being saddled with HUGE expenses
Harry and Meghan have see their income streams dry up, including their charitable donations
IT was billed as a rare “date night” for the supposedly privacy-loving couple.
But as Harry and Meghan glad-handed Hollywood executives on the red carpet this week, some royal aides are concerned there was something else at play.
7
7
7
The question of what happens when the Sussexes run out of money is at the forefront of many minds — and their appearance at the premiere of Bob Marley movie One Love will have done little to calm nerves.
The Sun understands that Meghan and Harry flew to Jamaica for the event as guests of Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the film, sharing a private jet with executives and staying at the same hotel.
When they walked the red carpet, posing with Jamaican politicians — who are this year plotting to oust the King as the island’s Head of State — it secured global headlines that will make Paramount very happy indeed.
And there is fear behind Palace walls that the couple could become “royals for hire” as they struggle to fund their expensive lifestyle amid floundering media deals.
READ MORE PRINCE HARRY
Insiders tell The Sun that although Paramount has yet to agree any formal collaboration with the Sussexes, a deal could be in the pipeline.
And Harry and Meghan must be hoping Paramount has deep pockets.
The couple are saddled with a $9.5million mortgage for their Montecito mansion and they are estimated to spend £3million a year on round-the-clock security.
7
7
Meanwhile, their income streams are drying up.
Most read in Royals
Their $100million Netflix deal is due to expire next year and it is unlikely to be renewed after a lacklustre performance so far.
Their documentary series, Harry & Meghan, hardly set the world alight, while Meghan’s animated series Pearl was savagely ditched by Netflix while it was still in development.
This month the streaming giant’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos gave a rueful smile to the camera when Golden Globes host Jo Koy quipped that Harry and Meghan have pocketed “millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing — and that’s just by Netflix”.
Taking money from Netflix was considered distasteful by some royal watchers who felt the same company had rubbished Harry’s father Charles and exploited the memory of his dead mother Diana for money in the hit series The Crown.
More embarrassment came with the collapse of the pair’s $20million deal with Spotify last summer, amid claims that they were not producing enough content.
Bill Simmons, Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetisation, branded Harry and Meghan “f***ing grifters”.
Harry had reportedly proposed a podcast in which he would interview Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin about their childhood trauma.
In 2021 the Duke secured a £35million book deal which included an advance of £17.5million.
But last year he had to submit his autobiography Spare more than once before the publishers accepted it — sparking rumours it had been “sexed up” after it emerged that Harry had begged pals and former girlfriends to speak to his ghost-writer for the book, JR Moehringer.
7
It is now four years since Megxit, when the couple moved to the States, and Harry revealed in his docuseries that they were only able to make the move because they had money left to him by Princess Diana, thought to be around £7million.
The kitty could also have been bolstered by money from the late Queen’s will, but their expenses remain high, chiefly their mortgage and huge security costs.
An insider revealed: “We said, ‘Why not just move to a smaller house and live quietly?’ but the answer was clear — they need security.”
The pair employ a string of private security guards at their Montecito pile and they work closely with LA-based security experts TorchStone, using former US President Barack Obama’s ex bodyguard Christopher Sanchez, as well as Christopher Keenan, who worked for Hillary Clinton, and former Met Police royal protection bodyguard David Langdown.
Their services do not come cheap.
As for their much-hyped foundation Archewell, figures in December revealed a hole in the accounts after it received almost £9million less in donations than in a previous year.
The foundation operated at a £536,357 loss but kept in the black thanks to earlier donations.
A single donation of $10million — 77 per cent of Archewell’s total 2021 income — came from one unidentified wealthy donor.
Archewell claims it is not unusual for donations to drop off after the first year and say they have $8million in the bank.
Harry is still employed as Chief Impact Officer at mental health coaching start-up firm BetterUp, but has faced criticism from staff there, especially when the company laid off 16 per cent of them in August.
One anonymous staffer said Harry contributed “zero things”.
Instead he has been keeping himself busy with a string of expensive lawsuits in the UK — but last week threw in the towel on his libel case against the Mail on Sunday, costing him £750,000.
He claimed to be “slaying dragons” after he celebrated victory in a phone-hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers.
But according to The Spectator magazine, these cases are largely funded by former F1 supremo Max Mosley’s legacy money via anti-press campaign group Hacked Off.
Harry is also fighting in the High Court against the Home Office in a bid to get security protection when he is in the UK, despite no longer being a “working royal”.
He has argued that his children cannot “feel at home” in the UK if it is “not possible to keep them safe” without police protection.
While the judge in the case has yet to announce his verdict, the scrap has already cost British taxpayers an estimated £300,000.
7
As well as expecting taxpayers to pay for his protection, Harry has also moaned that he was “literally cut off financially” by the Royal Family.
With a new health fear surrounding Charles, who earlier this month announced he was having an operation on his enlarged prostate, there is speculation about what will happen when the King is gone.
William is rolling in cash, buoyed by an annual £24million income from the Duchy of Cornwall.
But given the severely strained relations between the two brothers, it seems unlikely that he could be relied upon to fund the Sussexes.
The couple have instead looked elsewhere for favours, borrowing private jets from the likes of Elton John and Hollywood producer Tyler Perry and accepting hospitality from billionaire neighbour Oprah Winfrey.
But relying on the help of rich benefactors who want to rub shoulders with royalty has not turned out well for other royal outcasts.
Sarah Ferguson apologised for a “serious lapse in judgement” in 2010 after she was exposed by a News of the World sting operation in which she promised to obtain access to her former husband Prince Andrew in return for £500,000.
And Andrew himself was caught up in a series of financial scandals.
He accepted £1.1million from Turkish banker and alleged fraudster Selman Turk — just days after Mr Turk received a business award in Andrew’s Dragons’ Den-style competition at St James’s Palace.
And in 2007 shadowy Kazakh oligarch Timur Kulibayev mysteriously paid £3million above the asking price for the Duke’s home at Sunninghill Park in Berkshire.
Most infamous of all were Andrew’s links to dead paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, which have ultimately ended his public life.
There is no suggestion that Harry will make such serious errors — but he and Meghan are increasingly turning up at celebrity events, including concerts for Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
He was derided for accepting a Legends of Aviation Award from Scientologist pal John Travolta in Hollywood on Friday, in front of an audience that included Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancee Lauren Sanchez.
Royal watchers and aviation experts alike thought that he should not have accepted the award for his relatively short career flying Apache helicopters at the expense of real heroes.
But as Harry posed for pictures with D-listers such as “fake royal” Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe, it seemed to signal the direction the Sussexes are headed.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
So will a generous King be saddled with funding the life of someone who shows no interest in a royal life?
Or will the fallen Prince find an even less appealing paymaster than Netflix?
Harry and Meghan's expenses
- $9.5m mortgage
- £3m a year on security
- £750,000 libel costs
- $100m Netflix deal ends
- $20m Spotify deal axed
- £9m fall in donations to their charity
- £17.5m advance on Harry's book
Topics