Prince Charles funded Prince Harry’s US move despite ‘cut off’ claims
Prince Charles reportedly paid for Prince Harry’s move to America despite the Duke of Sussex saying the royal family no longer financially supported him.
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Prince Charles gave Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a “substantial sum” during their transition from royal life in the US, despite Prince Harry’s claims he was “cut off”.
Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey that his family “cut him off” when he moved to the US – months before he and wife Meghan struck deals with Netflix and Spotify reportedly worth $200 million.
But, according to a report in The Sun, Clarence House accounts covering the year from April 2020 revealed Prince Charles supported both his sons and their wives to the tune of $8.3 million.
It is unclear how much went to the Sussexes but a senior Clarence House spokesman said yesterday it was “substantial”, adding: “That funding ceased in the summer of last year. The couple are now financially independent.”
Royal author Phil Dampier told The Sun it should be “added to a long list of things said in the Oprah interview which weren’t true”.
“Harry’s people are claiming his statement about being cut off financially is not contradicted by the annual royal report because it refers to the first quarter of the financial year,” he said.
“But perception is everything and the impression he gave in the Oprah interview was that he had been cut off by his father.
“He didn’t qualify it by saying he had been paid up to a point, but then cut off.
It comes after Piers Morgan blasted Meghan for 17 “untrue, exaggerated or unprovable” slurs against the royal family.
He described Meghan as a “delusional actress who wants to make millions off the royals while trashing the family”.
HARRY’S ‘OLIVE BRANCH’ TO FAMILY
It also emerged that Prince Harry could offer an “olive branch” to the royal family by bringing two-year-old Archie with him when he returns to the UK for a statue unveiling of his late mother.
Prince Harry is expected back in the UK within days for the memorial, which will take place on July 1st outside Kensington Palace, on what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday.
Tensions between Prince Harry and Prince William remain high and they have only seen each other once during the past 18 months – at Prince Philip’s funeral – due to the challenges of the pandemic.
But royal experts are suggesting Prince Harry will not make the trip alone, but bring Archie with him.
“From what I’ve heard from reliable royal sources, Harry will return for his mother’s statue unveiling. He’s thought to be planning on staying at Frogmore [his former home with Meghan], and he’ll obviously have to quarantine,” royal expert Duncan Larcombe told Closer magazine.
“But he won’t be alone – there’s strong reason to believe that Archie will be with him. I think Archie coming would be a great diffuser of the situation. And the decision to bring him could be the very first sign of guilt from Harry,” he said.
“I think he still believes that what he and Meghan did was the right thing – but bringing Archie back would be an olive branch of some sort a definite sign that he’s looking to call a truth over what’s happened recently. It could help heal a lot of hurt,” he added.
The brothers are expected to speak separately at the event.
CHARLES ‘SHELL-SHOCKED’ OVER FEUD
Meanwhile, Prince Charles is allegedly having a rough time amid the ongoing tensions between his sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
The Prince of Wales is “shell-shocked by it all,” a royal insider reportedly told People magazine.
“He is very hurt and upset [by the ongoing fallout],” the insider claimed.
A source close to the royal household told the outlet that the royal family was hoping the brothers would reconcile at the funeral for their grandfather Prince Philip, but that didn’t eventuate.
The siblings were spotted sharing a brief, but public chat outside St. George’s Chapel in Windsor where the funeral was held.
“Everyone was optimistic,” the source claimed. “But nothing really happened.”
“There was not really any time to build bridges,” another close source added.
It comes as royal historian Robert Lacey added new chapters around the feud to his book, Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult, reports Fox News.
The rift between the brothers reportedly began when Prince William told Prince Harry he was concerned about how quickly he became serious about Meghan Markle.
According to Lacey’s new chapters, things deteriorated in October 2018 when Prince William learned of bullying allegations from staffers against the Duchess of Sussex. (The Duchess of Sussex’s office has strongly denied the allegations and said they were part of a “smear campaign”. Buckingham Palace’s independent inquiry is still “ongoing,” a source told People.)
Prince Harry was reportedly angry over what he viewed as “baseless allegations” and was “equally furious” that his brother would take them on board, Lacey wrote.
KATE STEPS OUT IN $130 SNEAKERS
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in London wearing a $130 pair of eco-conscious sneakers, and revealed that she has become a beekeeper.
Kate Middleton gifted schoolchildren with a pot of honey produced by her own bees at Anmer Hall, in Norfolk.
The Duchess was shown around the Urban Nature Project by Dr Doug Gurr, the director of the National History Museum.
Dressed casually, Kate wore an affordable pair of Veja sneakers – a brand also worn by Meghan Markle – made from organic, eco-minded materials
Vogue reports that Middleton sported Veja’s Esplar leather and suede trainers, teamed with a pink Chloé blazer, a white Ralph Lauren top, and blue jeans.
She asked the students from St Mary of the Angels Primary School in London if they knew where bees got their nectar from.
Kate then asked: “Would you like to try some? I’ve got one spoon each. This came specially from my beehive.
“See if it tastes the same as at home. Does it taste like honey from the shops? Does it taste like flowers?”
The duchess asked the children if they knew how many species of bees there were in this country, telling them: “It’s 350, isn’t that amazing?”
“Every time you see a bee, say ‘thank you so much’ because they make delicious honey.”
The duchess took the honey as a gift for the children to highlight the museum’s project about biodiversity.
Her appearance at the museum came after claims that Kate and William did not meet with Prince Harry after Prince Philip’s funeral over fears the conversations would be “leaked”.
The brothers will see each other for the first time since their grandfather’s funeral in April for the unveiling for the Princess Diana memorial on July 1.
Prince Harry could return to the UK in the next 24 hours so he can self-isolate ahead of the event.
The tribute takes place on what would have been his mother’s 60th birthday but the Duke of Sussex will need to quarantine beforehand due to Covid travel rules.
DIANA’S FINAL MOMENTS REVEALED
A fire chief who was one of the first to help Princess Diana after her fatal road crash in Paris has spoken for the first time of how she turned to him and asked, “Oh my God, what’s happened?”
Sgt. Xavier Gourmelon told the Daily Mail that when he arrived at the devastating crash scene in August 1997, Diana was still “moving and talking.”
“She spoke in English and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened?’ I could understand that, so I tried to calm her. I held her hand,” said Sgt Gourmelon, who gave statements to police but has never before spoken to the press.
Only after he helped load Diana into an ambulance did he find out who she was from a captain at the scene. “He tells me who she is and then, yes, I recognise her, but in the moment I didn’t,” he told the outlet.
That was also true for the very first person to try to help her, off-duty doctor Frederic Mailliez, who stumbled across the crash scene while driving home from a party.
He first helped Diana, who was “sitting on the floor in the back” of the Mercedes.
“I discovered then she was a most beautiful woman and she didn’t have any (serious) injuries to her face. She was not bleeding (then) but she was almost unconscious and was having difficulty breathing,” he said. “She looked fine for the first minutes,” he recalled.
“So I began to speak English to her, saying that I was a doctor and that the ambulance was on its way and everything is going to be all right,” he said.
He left as soon as emergency workers took over. “And so I left the scene without knowing who I had been treating,” he told the Mail.
WHY WILLS, KATE ARE SILENT
Prince William and Kate Middleton did not formally discuss their rift with Harry after Prince Philip’s funeral because they feared details of their conversations would be leaked, a royal historian claims.
Robert Lacey, a historical consultant for Netflix’s The Crown, said the Cambridges avoided a private confrontation as family anger “ran deep” during the emotional service at Windsor in April, The Sun reports.
William and Harry were seen briefly chatting with each other as they left their grandfather’s funeral service earlier this year.
It was reported at the time that the brothers then spoke for two hours afterwards – alongside their father, Charles – in their first meeting since Harry’s bombshell Oprah interview.
But according to Mr Lacey, that conference didn’t happen – with Charles said to have gone straight back to Wales and Kate and William returning home to put their children to bed.
In an updated edition of his book Battle of Brothers, serialised in The Times, the author says: “They told friends that they could see no point in talking to Harry, since any discussion of substance would go straight back to Meghan to be leaked out via Oprah [Winfrey] or some other tentacle of the Sussex network.”
The Cambridges’ alleged fears came after Meghan’s friend Gayle King sensationally let slip that Harry had had “unproductive” talks with his brother and father after his Oprah interview.
She told CBS news at the time: “Well, I did actually call them to see how they are feeling, it’s true, Harry has talked to his brother and his father, too.
“The word I was given was, those conversations were not productive. But they are glad they at least started a conversation.”
And experts have since said the royals will now be extra-cautious with what they say to Harry.
Royal author Phil Dampier previously told The Sun: “One of Charles and Williams’ big fears is that whatever discussions they have with Harry are immediately leaked.
“They will be worried that if they get into any great detail, the next thing they know it will be out in the public domain, which makes it extremely difficult to heal the wounds long-term.”
Royal commentator Angela Levin said in the days after Philip’s funeral that any private conversations with the couple would appear on social media or in the press “in no time”.
“I think the Royal Family would be crazy to talk to Meghan and Harry,” she said.
“In no time it would be out in magazines and on social media.”
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