Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Lived Off His Inheritance After They Left the Royal Family

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired on CBS on March 7, was full of bombshells (opens in new tab), from Meghan revealing that she'd struggled with thoughts of dying by suicide (opens in new tab) due to the rabid tabloid reports about her, to Harry sharing that he had asked his family for and been denied any help (opens in new tab) with dealing with the press frenzy, and much more in between. Amid the couple's accounts of their still-fractured relationship with the royal family, Harry also confirmed that they had been completely cut off financially after making the decision to step down as senior working royals. As a result, he said, he and Meghan had to support themselves, and did so largely with the help of the inheritance he was left by his mother, Princess Diana, after her 1997 death.

The end of Harry and Meghan's royal financial support happened in "the first quarter of 2020," he told Oprah, shortly after their announcement in January of that year that they had decided to step back from their royal duties.

"But I've got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this," Harry continued, then noted that Diana's endowment felt rather prescient, especially in light of her own struggles with the British press and the royal family. "Touching back on what you asked about what my mum would think of this, I think she saw it coming," he said. "I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process."

Harry gained access to his inheritance from Diana in 2014; both he and his brother William were left £10 million (opens in new tab)—currently about $13.8 million—in trusts that could only be accessed upon reaching their 30th birthdays.

For the record, that likely wasn't actually the only money Harry and Meghan had to sustain themselves until they were able to lock in their new and massively lucrative deals with Spotify (opens in new tab) and Netflix (opens in new tab). Harry was also the recipient of another multimillion-dollar royal inheritance: His great-grandmother the Queen Mother leaving him and Will about £14 million ($19.3 million) to split between themselves, with Harry receiving a larger share since he won't have access to the many financial benefits that come with being king. And Meghan, for her part, is estimated to have entered her royal marriage with about $5 million to her name (opens in new tab), thanks to her long-running role on Suits—and ongoing residual checks from streaming services—plus her many pre-royal life side hustles.