Prince Harry Has Allegedly Burned Through Majority of Inheritance from Princess Diana, Queen Mother

Prince Harry has reportedly exhausted the majority of the inheritance left to him by Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

Claims surfaced on Tuesday, 5 May 2026, suggesting that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been forced to 'pull back' on their lavish spending after realigning their financial priorities in the United States.

While the Duke has previously stated that his mother's estate was a 'safety net' during their 2020 exit from the Royal Family, these fresh allegations suggest that the well may be running dry.

According to a report by former People magazine editor Dan Wakeford in his 'Celebrity Intelligence' newsletter, the couple has allegedly reduced their full-time staff from 16 employees to just five.

The Sussexes' office has issued a stinging rejection of the narrative, labelling the claims as speculative and lacking on-the-record evidence.

Harry has long said that the money left to him by Diana was crucial when he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties and relocated first to Canada, then to California. In his 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he said he had been cut off by the Royal Family 'in the first quarter of 2020' and that his late mother's estate funded their security and early life abroad.

According to Forbes, Harry's inheritance from Diana was estimated at around $10 million, and he has spoken in his memoir Spare of receiving a 'large sum' at the age of 30, which he regarded more as a reminder of loss than a windfall.

Prince Harry's Inheritance Claims And Staff Cuts

Citing five unnamed sources said to be close to the Sussexes, Wakeford wrote that the couple are 'wildly unhappy' and increasingly conscious of their finances, and that they have cut their household staff from 16 full-time employees to five.

According to Wakeford, Meghan is described by his sources as the more financially cautious of the pair, 'aware of how careful they need to be,' while Prince Harry, raised in an institution where almost everything was handled for him, allegedly 'lacks basic awareness of what things cost.'

The report suggests that, between security, property and the costs of their new lives in the US, much of Harry's inheritance from both Diana and his great-grandmother has been spent.

None of the figures in Wakeford's report is supported by on-the-record documentation, and the Sussexes' camp insists the narrative is speculative at best.

In Spare, Harry wrote that he had always seen Diana's money as effectively belonging to his children. 'We saw that money as belonging to Archie. And his sibling,' he recalled, adding that using it to bankroll their new life would be a 'last resort.' The book does not offer precise sums, but it underscores his ambivalence toward inherited wealth and the burden it entails.

Queen Mother Trust, Netflix Deals And Prince Harry's Money Trail

Prince Harry's inheritance did not only come from Diana. The Queen Mother is understood to have created a trust worth around £19 million in 1994 for her great-grandchildren, structured to deliver tax-free lump sums.

Under that arrangement, younger royals would receive one payment on their 21st birthdays and a second on their 40th birthdays. Reports suggest Harry collected between £7 million and £8 million from that fund when he turned 40 in 2024, after the trust had time to grow.

On paper, those are substantial cushions. But the couple's post-royal life is not modest. They purchased a large property in Montecito, California, and pay privately for security after losing publicly funded protection when they ceased to be working royals. Those costs alone, while not itemised in public records, are widely regarded as eye-watering by US standards.

In theory, commercial deals were meant to replace royal stipends. Since 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have signed major agreements with Netflix and Spotify, though the Spotify partnership has since ended.

Harry received a sizeable advance for Spare, which went on to sell strongly. Meghan has also launched As Ever, a lifestyle business that remains in its early stages. The couple regularly accept paid speaking engagements, usually framed around mental health, media responsibility and social issues.

Wakeford's article suggests those revenue streams have not been as smooth or as secure as hoped, hinting at a mismatch between income and expenditure. The portrait painted is of a couple recalibrating their expectations and perhaps learning the hard way that royal-grade lifestyles require corporate-CEO-level earnings to sustain.

The Sussex Rebuttal To Finance Claims

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess has dismissed the claims as a work of fiction. In a pointed statement, the representative said the 'unnamed sources' were doing 'a lot of very heavy lifting' and questioned why, if the allegations were solid, none of the supposed insiders would go on the record.

The spokesperson said that relying on off-the-record briefings 'makes writing a lot easier' when there is no editor demanding evidence or asking a reporter to 'stand it up,' and maintained that the narrative of a financial crisis is a recurring media trope used to undermine the couple's independence. Despite this, the lack of public filings for their private trusts means the true state of their accounts remains a mystery.

For now, the Duke and Duchess continue to project an image of success, even as the world watches their every expenditure for signs of a retreat.

Originally published on IBTimes UK