Meghan Markle And Prince Harry, Step Back From Royalty Priviledges
2020 is barely one month in and we’ve had surprises upon surprises. This will truly be a year of shock waves.
From widespread fires wiping out thousands of wildlife in Australia to speculations of the commencement of the third World war. Now, princes and princesses no longer want to stay in their castles.
Megan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex is an American member of the British Royal Family and was also an actress. A profession she had to sacrifice to attend to her ‘royal’ duties. Before meeting Prince Harry in 2016, she had been involved in several romantic relationships, one of which resulted in a marriage that was annulled as a result of irreconcilable differences. Being a divorcee, an American actress, and even being older than Prince Harry made her relationship with the Prince the talk of the entire press universe.
Since their marriage in 2018, Megan retired from acting and took down all her social media accounts. Prior to their wedding, she ended her blogging career on The Tig, taking all its articles offline. From her acting and lifestyle blogging and other engagements, Megan was rumored to have been making over $600,000 a year. Mind Blowing.
Having to let all of this go must have taken its toll on the Duchess, as in a statement that was released on Wednesday, the 8th of January, 2020, Prince Harry and Megan declared that they wished to step back from royal life and be absolutely financially independent. This means they want to start working for their money. Interesting.
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Here’s the full statement by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex;
After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages. This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity. We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge, and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.”
Their Royal Highnesses, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
It’s not hard to imagine that it gets tiring. Living a life of the utmost comfort and security, having anything you wanted in the world without making particular contributions to the flow might get boring. But then again, the prospect of having dual roles, having royal duties and still earning private money might prove cumbersome for the young family.
Now, while this news is currently the hottest thing on the internet, most people do not even know how the British family makes their money in the first place.
As of 2017, Forbes estimated the British Royal Family to be worth over $88 billion. This is a safe estimation of the crown’s concrete assets and also the value of the family brand. Asides charity and humanitarian works, the Queen has never worked for a dime in her life. She just had to be born. The crown’s purse is funded by a number of sources. Some of which include;
- The Sovereign Grant: A percentage (15%) of the annual profit of the Crown Estate. This grant mainly covers the costs of official expenditures. These expenditures involve the costs of the upkeep of the various royal residences, staffing, travel and state visits, public engagements, and official entertainment. The Crown Estate has a property portfolio which includes, among other things, Regent Street, Windsor Great Park and much of the UK coastline. In its first year (2013), the grant was said to have generated £34 million!
- The Civil List: According to Wikipedia, “A civil list is a list of individuals to whom money is paid by the government, typically for service to the state or as honorary pensions. It is a term especially associated with the United Kingdom and its former colonies of Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore and many more. It was originally defined as expenses supporting the monarch.” This civil list is funded by the government’s Consolidated Fund and audited by the treasury. Although this form was actually replaced by a single Sovereign Grant and the special Grants-In-Aid, the Queen is said to have received an annual income of £7.9 million from the Civil List between 2001 and 2012.
- The Privy Purse: The privy purse is the private income of the British Sovereign. Most of this income is from the Duchy of Lancaster. This is the private estate of the British Sovereign consisting of land holdings and other assets. This estate is valued at approximately £533 million. It is organized into Lancashire Survey, the Yorkshire Survey, the Crewe Survey, the Nedwood Estate and the South Survey. The privy purse is said to amount to a £20.1 million net income annually.
Just imagine having access to billions of euros simply for being born. Some of us middle-class folks might assume that this is the best thing that could happen to anybody, but it does get unfulfilling.
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This announcement caused an uproar in the whole of the United Kingdom and even the world at large. Although the statement had been made public, people still needed to hear from the crown. On the 13th of January, 2020, Prince Harry, Prince William, Prince Charles, and Queen Elizabeth II attended a Sandringham summit meeting where the Queen finally made a statement that was released to the press;
Today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family. My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wishes to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family. Harry and Meghan have made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives. It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK. These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days.
This means that their decision to no longer be ‘senior royals’ in the British Royal Family and work independently for their money was approved. For the moment, this move is safely called ‘a period of transition’ where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would conveniently divide their time between their royal duties in Britain and living their private lives in North America, Canada to be precise.
Although, a lot of things still need to be put in places like funding, logistics, security and whatnots, Meghan and Harry seem to be deadpan in their situation as Meghan has apparently been jetting back and forth between Canada and the United Kingdom. A new website outlining their plans for financial independence, a new approach to their relationship with the media, and their commitment to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and their patronages have been launched- www.sussexroyal.com has even been created.
I guess they did think of everything! We wish them well on this new journey. May the odds be forever in their favour.
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