Prince Harry's inheritance is at the centre of fresh scrutiny after a US royal commentator claimed in early May that the Duke of Sussex has already burned through most of the multi‑million‑pound fortune left to him by Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Queen Mother, and has now reportedly slashed his Montecito staff by almost two‑thirds amid money worries.
Prince Harry's Inheritance Claims And A Slimmed-Down Staff
The latest claims about Prince Harry's inheritance come from journalist Dan Wakeford, a former editor of People magazine, in his 'Celebrity Intelligence' newsletter.
Citing five unnamed sources 'close to the Sussexes', Wakeford suggests the couple are 'wildly unhappy' and have had to 'cut back', allegedly shrinking their full‑time team in the US from 16 employees to just five.
Wakeford writes that Meghan is said to be acutely aware of the need to manage their finances carefully, while Harry, 'raised in a world where everything was provided', is portrayed as lacking 'basic awareness of what things cost.'
As of this reporting, none of those character assessments is backed by on‑the‑record testimony or documents, and nothing in the piece provides hard numbers on what, if anything, remains of the prince's inheritance.
$20 MILLION… GONE? ....
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) May 5, 2026
Prince Harry inherited a fortune from Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, but a new report claims it has largely been spent.
According to insiders, Harry and Meghan Markle are now under growing financial pressure after burning through much of the… pic.twitter.com/613A1ZfBSg
The Sussexes' spokesperson mounted an unusually punchy rebuttal. In a statement responding to the report, they said: 'The "unnamed sources", once again, doing a lot of very heavy lifting in this report. If they had any faith or evidence to back up what they allege, I don't understand why they wouldn't just go on the record with such claims... still, I suppose it makes writing a lot easier for Mr Wakeford when you don't have an Editor standing over you asking you to evidence it or "stand it up".'
How Prince Harry Has Talked About His Inheritance
In Spare, Harry describes the Diana money as both lifeline and burden. 'Upon reaching thirty, I'd receive a large sum left to me by Mummy,' he wrote. 'I scolded myself for being gloomy about that: most people would kill to inherit money. To me, however, it was another reminder of her absence, another sign of the void she'd left, which pounds and euros could never fill.'
He also acknowledged that the inheritance might one day have to be used for personal protection, calling such spending a 'last resort.'
'We saw that money as belonging to Archie. And his sibling,' he wrote.
Alongside the Diana estate, the Queen Mother's 1994 trust has long been part of the picture. Set up when she was 94, it was reportedly worth about £19 million and designed to give her great‑grandchildren tax‑free lump sums, with payments on their 21st and 40th birthdays. By the time Harry reached 40, in 2024, the matured fund was said to leave him with between £7 million and £8 million.
Since stepping back from royal duties, Harry and Meghan have also generated significant income through commercial ventures, from a Netflix deal and Harry's memoir advance to paid speaking engagements and Meghan's As Ever lifestyle brand.
Prince Harry's Inheritance, Montecito Life And The Cost Of Freedom
The picture that emerges, even allowing for the fog of anonymous briefing, is of a couple balancing the freedoms of Montecito life against the financial reality of running what is now, effectively, a private media and philanthropy business.
Wakeford reports that Meghan 'has a sense of how careful they need to be', while Harry is painted as someone still adjusting to the idea that private jet flights, security teams and multiple homes do not magically appear on a sovereign grant spreadsheet.
On the other side of the ledger, the Sussexes and their allies have an obvious interest in stressing that they are financially self‑reliant and not, as critics often suggest, carelessly burning through Diana's legacy.
The financial debate plays into a wider narrative about Harry's state of mind. Royal author Hugo Vickers has compared him to his great‑great‑uncle Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936 and spent the rest of his life in comfortable but constrained exile.
Speaking to Fox News, Vickers said he saw 'very sad' and 'rather angry' similarities in Harry's expression, arguing that both men 'decided not to do the duty which they had been born to undertake.'
Meghan, meanwhile, is frequently — and often unflatteringly — likened to Wallis Simpson. Vickers notes that, unlike the Duchess of Windsor, who stayed mostly in the background, Meghan is 'using her title and her name to market things' and sell products, from candles to jam, under the As Ever label.
Royal writer Ingrid Seward has even claimed that the late Prince Philip privately nicknamed her 'DoW', shorthand for Duchess of Windsor, because he detected an 'uncanny' similarity.
Prince Harry confirmed in his 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that he was cut off financially by the Royal Family in the 'first quarter of 2020' after he and Meghan Markle left their roles as working royals and moved to California. He said he relied on what his late mother had left him.
In his memoir 'Spare', he wrote of the inheritance he received at 30, describing it as a 'large sum' that was nonetheless 'another sign of the void she'd left'.
According to Forbes, that Diana inheritance was estimated at around $10 million (£7.34 million), while a separate trust reportedly created by the Queen Mother in 1994 was understood to provide Harry with between £7 million and £8 million when he turned 40 in 2024.
