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Prince William Is ‘Basically a Billionaire’ While Prince Harry Is ‘Fearful of Going Broke’
The schoolboy got right to the point. When Prince William visited a youth club in Manchester, England, on November 15, 11-year-old Amir Hassan asked a bold question: “How much do you have in your bank account?” The future king laughed, Amir later said, and told him he “didn’t know.”
But his financial statements are actually public knowledge. When his father ascended to the throne last year, William took control of the $1.3 billion Duchy of Cornwall, which makes him the largest private landowner in Britain and provides an estimated $30 million yearly salary. “William is basically a billionaire,” a source exclusively tells In Touch, “while his brother, Prince Harry, is fearful of going broke. It’s yet another reason there’s so much tension between them.”
They were left the same amount — about $12.4 million — following the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. And both brothers were also reportedly named in the queen mother’s $100 million will when she died in 2002. “It was always assumed that she left them $17 million to split and that Harry got the majority as ‘compensation’ for not being in line for the throne,” says the source. But after Harry, 39, and his wife, Meghan Markle, 42, stepped down from the royal family, their representative told Forbes that wasn’t true. “However, it’s believed that William did get the cash,” adds the source.
William also got “a very large sum of money in 2020” as a settlement with British newspapers, Harry claimed in recent court documents related to his phone-hacking lawsuit against the same media group. This was all part of the palace’s “secret agreement” with the press, Harry alleged, adding that his brother was given “some favorable deal in return for him going ‘quietly,’ so to speak.”
Apparently, Harry has spent the past three years “struggling to make ends meet,” says the source. After receiving a final allowance of about $5.6 million from Charles in early 2020, his father “literally cut me off financially,” Harry lamented at the time. In his memoir, he wrote about having to cover all his expenses for the first time — including a staggering $6 million yearly security bill — meaning the money he got from his parents wouldn’t go far. The Sussexes, who also bought a $14 million mansion in Montecito, California, in 2020, quickly cut deals, worth about $140 million total, to not only write the memoir, but also to produce content for Netflix and Spotify, “which provided a bit of a safety net,” says the source. But they’ve since parted ways with Spotify, and “there’s speculation that Netflix is unhappy as well,” adds the source. “Both he and Meghan are back to scrambling to figure out how to pay the bills.”
William will never have to worry, especially when he becomes king. (After his coronation last year, Charles was estimated to be worth $2.3 billion, thanks to all the property, jewels and more left to him by Queen Elizabeth II — all exempt from inheritance tax.) “Harry can’t help but resent his brother,” says the source. “Harry has long accepted that he’s the ‘spare,’ but just like William, he also gave up a good part of his life in service to the royal family, and it seems unfair that he has nothing to show for it.”
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