Royal donor offered access to Prince William at polo cup for £20k

Times

9 hours ago

The Prince of Wales has been forced to cut ties with a donor to his charities after she attempted to sell access to him for £20,000.
Minerva Mondejar Steiner, a Filipina-Swiss millionaire whose art gallery was an official sponsor of William's annual charitable polo event, had offered a private meeting with the prince in exchange for cash. She also offered 'VVIP tickets' and 'access to royalty' for advertisers prepared to pay £50,000 to feature in a magazine handed out at the fundraiser.
The Royal Charity Polo Cup match, taking place in Windsor next month, is an invitation-only event where millionaire donors can watch the prince play polo. They are expected to give to causes close to his heart, often writing cheques for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mondejar Steiner, who was on the guest list, extended a 'strictly private and confidential' invitation to wealthy individuals belonging to a luxury concierge service. They were told that, in exchange for donations to her own philanthropic foundation, they could attend the event or even join her in meeting the future king himself.
The email read: 'As a patron of the Mondejar Foundation, you are invited to support their philanthropic work through a charitable donation, in return for which you will be welcomed to this prestigious occasion.'
It continued: 'Patron contributions: £6,000 — admission for one patron. £20,000 — includes full access plus a private audience with Prince William and Princess Catherine.'
The email added that guests would also receive a 'luncheon' with 'free-flowing champagne', watch 'VIP polo matches in an intimate setting', attend an art exhibition, and mix with an 'invitation-only guest list of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, cultural icons and luxury leaders'. It added: 'The attached invitation is for your eyes only and not to be shared publicly or on social media.'
The invitation was sent to the members of A Small World — a Swiss company once described as 'MySpace for millionaires' by the Wall Street Journal.
In another document, Mondejar Steiner's team offered the opportunity to meet William to potential advertisers in a magazine to be handed to all those at the tournament. For £50,000, she said, she would grant companies a double-page editorial spread and two 'VVIP tickets', securing them seats at the tournament and 'access to the royals'.
The disclosures threaten to cast a shadow over the competition, which has granted William an opportunity to play the sport he has enjoyed since childhood among friends, fellow royals, and longstanding supporters.
The Guards Polo Club, whose presidents have included the late Prince Philip and whose patron was Elizabeth II, is based at Windsor Great Park, which historically served as a hunting ground for royals at the castle.
The charity polo event has been operated on the basis of strict confidentiality and the palace tends to publicly announce William's involvement and publish photographs after it has taken place. This was the case for last year's event, where William was present but Kate, then undergoing cancer treatment, did not. That event raised £1 million for charity.
The princess attended in 2023, presenting her husband with a trophy.
William at last year's event
SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE
… and in 2023
Over the last 13 years, the heir to the throne has raised more than £10 million for causes including the Royal African Society, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The explicit nature of the emails has echoes of the cash-for-access scandals involving the King when he was Prince of Wales.
Charles always insisted he had no knowledge of any fundraising deals, but was repeatedly found to have met donors who gave money on the explicit condition of meeting him personally or attending black-tie dinners at one of his residences.
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The emails also pose questions of William's operation, including the due diligence before Mondejar Steiner was granted the status of an official sponsor, or permitted to host an art exhibition and distribute her own magazine at the event.
A Kensington Palace source said William did not 'condone' the behaviour outlined in the email and thanked The Sunday Times for bringing the matter to their attention. In the circumstances, they said, they had asked the club to terminate its relationship with the sponsor.
The palace said it had no idea Mondejar Steiner was using the occasion to raise money for her own causes or promising access to William. In an unusually forthright intervention, the source said William did 'not condone the type of behaviour' in question and said there would be no 'cash for access'.
They added they were only familiar with Mondejar Steiner's gallery, not her foundation, and did not know she was using the event to raise money for her own, rather than William's, projects, or that she had shared an invitation with a luxury lifestyle company. It is understood William will still be attending the event and a behind-the-scenes reception to thank 'those involved'.
Asked what due diligence was done on sponsors of the cup, the palace source said that a secretariat at Buckingham Palace performed checks. It declined to say how much Mondejar Steiner had paid to become a sponsor or put on her own art exhibition at the event, saying the price charged varied.
In company filings, Mondejar Steiner, 45, lists her nationality as Filipina and her country of residence as Switzerland.
A self-styled 'collector and curator', she studied fashion in London in the early Noughties, then enrolled in an Oxford University further education institute to study art history between 2006 and 2008 before founding her eponymous Mondejar Gallery.
Married to Michael Steiner, a Zurich-based film director, she is involved in cultural and philanthropic work.
Last September she posed for photographs with the Duke of Sussex at the annual awards for WellChild, the charity for seriously ill children, in London. Weeks beforehand she met Benedict Cumberbatch at a screening of a film about the environment he was hosting, also posing for photos.
She posted from the event on Instagram
The source and scale of her wealth is unclear. Despite claiming to have an operation in the US, two entities to which she is linked in California have been struck off for failing to file accounts. She founded a property company in London in January, before incorporating her foundation as a 'community interest company' — a kind of non-profit — in April. Neither has a public presence or has published detailed information.
It appears she had intended to use the polo event as the centrepiece of a fundraising drive for her commercial gallery and philanthropic work.
Documents show she had prepared her own magazine, 1,000 copies of which, she told potential advertisers, would have been presented to 'ultra-high-net-worth' art patrons, collectors and 'institutional buyers' and placed on tables branded with her gallery's logo. Among her 'a la carte' advertising options was £50,000 for a double-page spread and access to royalty, £35,000 for the back cover and £30,000 for the inside front cover.
Mondejar Steiner declined to comment. Sources close to her said she was prohibited from doing so as she had signed a confidentiality agreement barring her from speaking about the event until after it had taken place. The sources added that her principal goal was to raise money for the technical college founded by her father in her home city of Tacloban in the Philippines.
Brunilde Le Jossec of A Small World said: 'To clarify, [our company] is not selling access, or facilitating any private meeting with members of the British royal family.' She added that it was approached directly by the Mondejar Foundation and asked to share details of their invitation to become a patron of the charity.
'Believing this a relevant opportunity to support a philanthropic cause, a representative of the events team proactively forwarded this to a small group of members, whom they believed would be interested in supporting this charitable cause,' she said.