From a TV star with a small fortune to a king who just got the mother of all tax breaks — if you
thought the royals were larger than life, wait until you see their bank accounts!
When Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson divorced in 1996, their daughters Princess Beatrice and
Princess Eugenie were given an impressive windfall. Part of the divorce agreement
included a £3 million trust fund for Ferguson and her daughters — that's about $3.46 million.
Of that money, Beatrice and Eugenie reportedly received some $1.6 million in a shared trust.
On top of that, Beatrice is the beneficiary of a trust fund set up by her great-grandmother, Queen
Elizabeth's mother. The elder Elizabeth opted to leave a vast sum of her own money — around $22
million — to her great-grandchildren. Beatrice received a significant share of that money.
As a non-working royal, Beatrice isn't entitled to the Sovereign Grant, which pays salaries to
the royal family. She's previously worked for Sony and the tech company Afiniti. It's unclear
how her July 2020 wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has impacted her overall net worth,
but, right now, Celebrity Net Worth puts Beatrice at a comfortable $1 million.
Like her sister Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie can count the trust funds established
by her family as part of her overall net worth. She's also not a senior, working royal, so Eugenie
has taken positions at various companies. Eugenie spent a lot of her early adulthood
working in the art world, first as the director for the online auction house Hauser & Wirth.
Eugenie later married Jack Brooksbank, who has had a long career in hospitality. It's
believed that Eugenie's present net worth is approximately $1 million,
though it's unclear how her marriage has impacted that amount.
Prince Andrew's financial situation has been a heavily discussed topic in recent years,
especially as he became embroiled in his now-infamous sex abuse scandal.
"Prince Andrew has failed in his bid to get a civil case, which alleges that he
sexually assaulted a seventeen-year-old girl, dismissed by a U.S. judge."
In March 2022, Andrew paid Virginia Giuffre an undisclosed amount following the conclusion of
the sex abuse lawsuit she filed against him. While the amount paid hasn't been released,
The Telegraph reported that the figure is likely well over $13.8 million,
and mentioned that Andrew likely needed help from Queen Elizabeth II to pay it off.
That squares with the information available from Celebrity Net Worth,
as the site has Andrew's estimated net worth to be approximately $5 million — a far cry from the
possible settlement paid to Giuffre. In November 2021, The Guardian reported that a $1.725 million
loan taken out by Andrew from his private bank had been paid off by a Conservative Party donor.
Up until Andrew was told to step back as a senior royal, he received approximately
$322,000 a year from the Crown. He attempted to sell off an impressive ski lodge in Switzerland,
but that sale was held up because of his many debts. He and Sarah Ferguson share a $10 million
home known as the Royal Lodge, but that is owned by the Crown Estate rather than Andrew himself.
Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles entered into her marriage to King Charles III with
a healthy bank account of her own. Celebrity Net Worth estimates that her overall personal
net worth is $5 million, which mostly stems from her wealthy parents. Camilla's mother,
Rosalind Shand, inherited $575,000, and her father Major Bruce Shand was a wine merchant,
an officer in the army, and vice lord lieutenant of East Sussex.
She grew up in an impressive home worth $2 million and attended prestigious schools,
and her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, was also financially successful.
Of course, marrying the future King Charles III in 2005 offered a major
boost to Camilla's net worth as well; The Telegraph reported that the king
even opted to not sign a prenuptial agreement ahead of their marriage.
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, entered into her own royal marriage with some degree
of financial security. Her overall personal net worth is estimated to have been $5 million before
she and Prince Harry married in May 2018. This small fortune came from her career as an actress,
as Markle had numerous roles on TV shows before landing the role of Rachel on Suits in July 2011.
Per Celebrity Net Worth, Markle earned $50,000 per episode of Suits at the height of her time
on the series, making her total income from the show approximately $4 million.
"Take notes, I'm not gonna repeat myself."
"I love you."
Markle also ran the lifestyle blog The Tig, which she started in 2014. The site was very popular,
and Celebrity Net Worth notes that its social media platforms had hundreds of thousands of
followers, and Markle reportedly earned $80,000 a year from the site. She shut down the website in
2017, but was said to have applied to reactivate the trademark for the site's name in January 2022.
Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie Wessex, are rumored to have a shared net worth of $10 million,
though the website Wealth-X put that net worth at closer to $45
million back in 2012. Either way, it's clear that the two are doing quite well.
Prince Edward joined the military for four months following his graduation from college
before moving on to a career in theater and television. He even ran his own company,
Ardent Productions, until 2002, when he began to take on more of a significant role in the
royal family. It's believed that the bulk of Edward's wealth comes from the Sovereign Grant,
though it's likely he still has money left over from his earlier positions.
Edward and Sophie married in 1999, and up to that point,
Sophie had worked in public relations. In the years that
followed her marriage, Sophie also took on more responsibility within the royal family.
As the wife of Prince William and the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall,
and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton has a sky-high net worth these days. However,
she entered into her marriage with William with a significant personal net worth of $10 million,
much of which was gleaned from her mother's incredibly successful party supplies company.
The duchess is also the beneficiary of a trust fund established by her great-grandmother.
Following the death of Middleton's great-uncles in World War I, their sisters inherited £70,538 ⁠—
which is at least $2.9 million in today's money. One of them, Olive Lupton, set up a trust fund
for her descendants, which included Middleton's grandfather and, ultimately, Middleton herself.
King Charles III's sister, Princess Anne, has an impressive net worth of at least $10
million. While much of that amount is made up of payments Anne receives through the
Sovereign Grant, she was quite the athlete as a youth and was a proficient equestrian,
even competing in the Summer Olympics in 1976.
It's possible that Anne's net worth is even higher, too; it's believed that,
in addition to her annual income via the grant, Anne owns $7 million in jewelry and a $15 million
home, and she is also the beneficiary of a trust fund established by her grandfather.
Queen Elizabeth used the Privy Purse, a taxpayer-funded income source,
to pay each of her children, including Princess Anne, for their appearances at royal events
throughout the U.K. and abroad. Anne is also paid through the Duchy of Lancaster,
a significant portfolio of land, property, and other assets held by the British sovereign.
As Princess Diana's son, Prince Harry inherited a fortune from his mother following her death
in 1997. Princess Diana set up a trust fund for both of her sons that paid Harry $10 million on
his 30th birthday. Diana had gained her own wealth from her own aristocratic family as
well as her 15-year marriage to King Charles III and their subsequent divorce settlement.
Harry later revealed that he and Meghan Markle were financially cut
off from the royal family in early 2020, and that they lived off of
the money he received from his mother's fund from that point.
"I've got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this."
The couple later signed a $120 million deal with Netflix and Spotify. Up to that point,
Harry had been funded by the Duchy of Cornwall,
a private estate founded by Edward III in 1337. Harry received this funding through his father,
who was the Duke of Cornwall during Queen Elizabeth's reign. Harry was
also the recipient of a trust fund established by his great-grandmother when she passed away.
Like his brother, Prince William received money held in a trust set up by his mother,
Princess Diana. William began receiving dividend payments of $450,000 a year when he turned 25,
and received the full amount of the trust on his 30th birthday. William has also inherited
the Duchy of Cornwall from his father following Queen Elizabeth's passing,
which is valued at $1.1 billion. While William cannot access the total value of the Duchy,
he will use it to pay himself and his wife and to provide for his family.
Following the ascension of his father to the throne, William's net worth is now estimated to
be $100 million. While William had a robust career in the military from 2006 to 2013,
the bulk of his time working has been through the royal family as the heir to the throne.
Despite that, Celebrity Net Worth also notes that most of his net worth prior
to receiving the Duchy of Cornwall came from the trust fund set up by his mother.
King Charles III already had a massive net worth of $100 million ahead of his ascension
to the throne. Now that he is King of the United Kingdom, Charles has a net worth of around $600
million. Much of Charles' income before he became king was sourced from the Duchy of Cornwall,
which is always inherited by the oldest son of the current monarch, and it's
believed that Charles typically made anywhere between $20 and $30 million a year this way.
The Duchy of Cornwall operates as a "crown body," which ensures that the royal family
is not taxed on the money the Duchy generates. Despite that, Charles has opted to pay taxes on
the money since 1993, first paying a tax rate of 50% and reducing that number to 25% following his
2005 marriage. The total value of the Duchy of Cornwall is estimated to be $1.1 billion.
As King Charles III, he inherited the Duchy of Lancaster from his mother. This
is a similar private collection of land and property held by the royal family;
unlike the Duchy of Cornwall, it's not expected that Charles will pay any tax on this inheritance.