Is being a Royal worth it, when there is nothing to do?

PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle will embark on married life with millions of dollars in the bank and no opportunity to work independently, make career decisions or earn their own wages.

PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle will embark on married life with millions of dollars in the bank and no opportunity to work independently, make career decisions or earn their own wages.

The pair, who will marry on May 19, have both previously worked for wages. Now, they will instead be reliant on their savings, and on the generosity of Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles, and his brother Prince William.

Most of their money will come as grants from the Duchy of Cornwall — a private estate and

connected investment company owned by the Prince of Wales, which made almost $40 million in profits last year.

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Is being a Royal worth it? Picture: Mega

Prince Charles is the current Prince of Wales, and the sole direct beneficiary of the Duchy, a 14th century cash cow.

When the Queen dies, the new King Charles will take over the Queen’s private estate, the Duchy of Lancaster, while Prince William, as the heir, takes over the Duchy of Cornwall.

Prince Harry, who last earned wages when he served 10 years with the British Army, and Ms Markle, a successful actor who also ran a lifestyle blog and worked as a fashion designer, will only receive as much money from the Duchy of Cornwall as Charles and later William are prepared to give them.

They will become full-time royals, working without salary to fulfil their vaguely-defined

“constitutional duties,’’ raise millions of dollars for their royal charities, and make occasional

overseas trips at the request of the UK Foreign Office.

And while they will live in luxury and have a large staff to look after them, royal finance expert, journalist and author David McClure, said one of the problems confronting the royal family was what its younger members should do.

Meghan Markle has been forced to leave all of her former life behind. Picture: AFP

McClure said holding down a job in today’s times was important for a person’s “self-worth, integrity and being.’’

“One of the major problems for the young royals is they have nothing to do,’’ McClure told News Corp.

“Does he (Harry) really want to cut ribbons and do official engagements for the next 35 years?

“It’s a very boring existence.

“He’d be better off finding a more substantial job. Be Governor of the Bahamas or head of the British Council. If I was him I’d move to America.’’

(The last Windsor to be the Governor of Bahamas was the former King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and who was shipped off to the Caribbean after his apparent Nazi sympathies caused embarrassment during World War II).

WHY THE ROYAL FAMILY CAN’T WORK

McClure said he did not want to diminish the excellent work Prince Harry did for charity, particularly his founding of the Invictus Games and his work with wounded and ill soldiers and veterans, saying it was “laudable.’’

But he said the fact young royals could not work independently was a “genuine problem.’’

Potential conflicts of interest limit the kind of work a young royal could do with an outside company.

Then there were jobs that were not considered suitable for a member of the royal family — like acting.

Ms Markle had enjoyed a successful career as an actor on the hit TV series Suits, where she starredas an attractive paralegal named Rachel Zane, wearing revealing clothes, and filming several steamy sex scenes.

She has given up her acting career to focus on her marriage and a string of new charitable and patronage roles as Prince Harry’s wife.

Meghan Markle can’t be a Royal and an actress. Picture: Supplied

“Meghan — she cannot act, that would be out of the question,’’ McClure said.

He said it was possible she could do something such as write children’s books, as Prince Andrew’s former wife Sarah the Duchess of York had, but that she may feel inclined to donate any proceeds to charity.

“One of the problems with all this is the closer you get to the throne the harder it is to work,’’ McClure said.

He cited the case of Sophie Rhys-Jones, who married Prince Edward, the Queen’s fourth child. A senior public relations operative, she owned her own firm, but had to quietly close it down after a sting by the now-defunct News of the World caught her on camera negotiating money for access, and making indiscreet comments about the royal family and politicians.

Ms Markle is thought to have earned several millions of dollars throughout the later years of her acting career. But as an outsider marrying into The Firm, as the royal family calls itself, she will be in a much more vulnerable position that Prince Harry.

She was thought to have been paid about $641,000 a season in the last few years of Suits, and had a number of sponsorships and ambassadors, including with Audi, which provided her with a car.

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. The original castle was built in the 11th century and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. Picture: iStock

But as a self-made success story she had none of the family wealth available to her fiance. There are reports the couple have eschewed a pre-nuptial agreement, but this has never been confirmed.

Harry embarked on adulthood with a golden nest egg from the estate of his late mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car accident in 1997 when Harry was just 12 years old

William and Harry each inherited half of their mother’s estate, worth about £13 million — around $25 million. It was held in trust until they reached the age of 21, but both princes inherited about $13 million each.

Diana’s estate had been worth around $40 million but around $17 million went in inheritance tax. McClure said it was thought that Harry had invested the money and was living off the income it generated.

“That’s the way it normally happens … it’s a very common vehicle for the upper classes to live off,’’ he said.

There is plenty of ribbon cutting to do if you are a Royal. Picture: Getty

Aside from his mother’s inheritance, McClure said Harry’s other main source of income came from his father, out of the Duchy of Cornwall.

The most recent accounts tabled for the Duchy, for 2016-2017, showed Prince Charles set aside the equivalent of $6.3 million for Prince Harry, Prince William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their two children Princes George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.

“Funding for the activities of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, other

expenditure including capital expenditure, and transfer to reserves,’’ the line item in the Duchy’s annual review said.

McClure said Prince Harry had earned an independent wage during his army career, which ended in 2015.

“He was in the army for 10 years and when he left he was on £37,000 a year (AUS$67,000) so he was not making a lot of money,’’ he said.

“The other thing is there are probably a few family trusts knocking around, maybe the Queen

Mother (who died in 2002) or some other family trusts.’’

Prince Harry posing with his fiance US actress Meghan Markle at Frogmore House in Windsor in one of two official engagement photos. Picture: AFP

Ms Markle will also be unlikely to score a huge jewellery collection at the expense of the royal family. While she is expected to appear on her wedding day in a stunning diamond tiara, it is likely to be loaned rather than gifted to her.

McClure said the royal family was concerned about potentially giving away valuable family jewellery.

“More than likely she will get a wedding gift but whether she gets a really expensive heirloom … the royal family is really worried about the loss of control of the jewels,’’ he said.

“When Diana divorced, part of the divorce agreement was she handed back some of her jewellery.

“With Wallis Simpson, it was thought she’d got away with Queen Alexandra’s jewellery.

“That’s the problem with outsiders marrying into the royal family.’’

Queen Elizabeth, as sovereign, also gets a Sovereign Grant from the government every year to spend solely on her operating expenses.

The grant comprises 15 per cent of the revenue of the Crown Estate, a government commercial organisation which manages the former royal properties handed over by King George III in 1760 in return for a yearly payment.

However, that money (an expected $150 million this financial year) goes only to Queen Elizabeth for such costs as paying her staff and the upkeep of official residences such as Buckingham Palace. Her family is not entitled to access it.

“In theory there is no public money, no taxpayer funds, not for Charles, William, Kate or Harry,’’ McClure said.

Security and policing is funded by the taxpayer, but the cost is relatively small when offset by the publicity and promotion the royal family is considered to bring to the UK.

The Foreign Office will pay for their travel if the royal couple visits another country or tours the Commonwealth at the request of the Government.

McClure said Ms Markle had spent a few years in the Hollywood spotlight and “she probably thinks she knows what she’s in for.’’

“It’s a boring job, a horrible job. You live in a gilded cage,’’ he said.

“Sure, you will never worry about money again, you never queue, everything is taken care of for you.

“But is it worth it?

“We should allow people to have an independent life.’’