How Princess Diana’s Inheritance Allowed Harry To Leave “The Firm”

In Sunday's groundbreaking CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle answered many of the lingering questions that have surfaced since their oft-scrutinized exit from the UK’s royal family last year. In regards to how the young family is funding their new North American life, Prince Harry revealed that the couple has been relying on the inheritance from his late mother, Princess Diana.

“My family literally cut me off financially,” he told Oprah when asked about the couple’s finances. “I’ve got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”

Multiple reports cite that Diana left a sum of about £10 million to each of her children, to be paid out on their 30th birthdays. According to a Forbes report from 2011, the inheritance likely settled at around $10 million after taxes. (Per Forbes, Harry was not a beneficiary of his great-grandmother's $100 million fortune.)

Harry and Meghan also maintain assets outside of Diana's inheritance. According to Forbes, Meghan contributed a reported $2 million from her former acting career, and the couple recently inked deals with Spotify and Netflix, which are worth an estimated $15–$18 million and $100 million, respectively.

And what are they spending their money on? Throughout the CBS interview, both Harry and Meghan reiterated that a driving force of their decision-making centered on safety. In 2018, when Meghan was pregnant with Archie, she was told by "The Firm" — a moniker for the royal family — that her son and any subsequent children would not receive security protection. Some estimates put that cost at a whopping £4 million (about $5.5 million) per year.

Additionally, while they have reportedly paid back the £2.4 million (about $3.3 million) of taxpayer money spent on their Windsor residence, they've also taken out a $9.5 million mortgage for their California home.