Harry hits back over claim Charles bankrolled him after Megxit

Prince Harry has hit back after Prince Charles’ office claimed the heir to the throne gave a substantial sum to Harry after Megxit.

Prince Harry has hit back at claims from Prince Charles’ office that he was bankrolled a “substantial sum” by his dad after Megxit.

That’s despite Harry’s assertion that his family “literally cut me off financially”.

The 36-year-old Duke of Sussex had complained about the apparent sudden loss of support in his TV tell-all, telling Oprah Winfrey that he was only able to step away from the royal family thanks to an inheritance from his late mother, Princess Diana.

However, his father, heir to the throne, gave Harry and his brother, Prince William, a total of more than $8.23 million in the last financial year, according to an audit by Charles’ office, Clarence House.

Harry and Meghan in South Africa in 2019. Picture: Michele Spatari/AFP

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While the records did not specify exactly how much Harry and his family received, a “substantial sum” was given to support them even after they left life as senior royals, a Clarence House spokesman told UK media.

“As we all remember in January 2020 when the Duke and Duchess announced that they were going to move away from the working royal family, the Duke said that they would work towards becoming financially independent,” the spokesman said, according to The Telegraph.

“The Prince of Wales … allocated a substantial sum to support them with this transition,” the spokesman said, with the support ending last summer.

The Sussexes’ departure from life as working royals was “a matter of enormous sadness to the family,” but Harry’s father supported them because he “wanted to help make this work,” the spokesman said.

“I betray no confidence when I say they’ve been very successful in becoming financially independent,” said the rep, referring to big-money deals the Sussexes have since struck with the likes of Netflix and Spotify.

Prince Charles and Prince Harry in 2019. Picture: Niklas Halle’n/AFP

But the Sussexes have hit back – accusing Clarence House of putting an unfair spin on the finances by “conflating two different timelines,” a spokesperson for the couple told the BBC.

“It’s inaccurate to suggest that there’s a contradiction,” the spokesperson said, insisting Harry’s cut-off claim was from after the period addressed in the audit.

“The Duke’s comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which starts annually in April,” the spokesperson said.

The revelation still sparked outrage in the UK, however.

“Do they realise just how spoiled it sounds?” The Telegraph’s Robert Taylor asked in an op-ed, noting that “the average person in the UK earns less than one per cent of that gift?”

“And do they appreciate just how ungrateful it looks to accept a handout of that scale, and then publicly denigrate the man who gave it, saying he’d cut them off?” he asked.

“These are not snotty youngsters. They’re mature adults,” he said, noting the Prince is 36 and his wife 39.

“Frankly, I’d be ashamed to be living off my parents at that age, however much security I needed to pay for. There comes a time – and it shouldn’t take until 36 – when you need to buy your own dinner,” Taylor wrote, saying Harry came across as “self-obsessed, disloyal and spoiled”.

Charles and Harry in happier times. Picture: Luke MacGregor/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Buckingham Palace also revealed that the investigation into Meghan Markle’s bullying claims – including that a senior royal raised alarm over her future children’s skin colour – was being paid for privately, The Telegraph said.

The palace declined to confirm if a royal was footing the bill – and if so, which one – but stressed that taxpayers’ money was not being used for the probe by an external law firm, the UK paper said.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission