Why did Harry and Meghan leave the Royal Family, and where do they get their money?

Yahoo

19-03-2025

US officials have released a redacted version of Prince Harry's immigration application as part of an ongoing row over his previous drug use.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK after stepping back from official royal duties in 2020.
The couple have since launched various commercial ventures, including several television series for Netflix and a new lifestyle brand headed by the duchess, Meghan Markle.
Harry and Meghan met in 2016 and married in 2018. They stepped down as senior royals in January 2020.
Angry about media intrusion, they were frustrated that Buckingham Palace prevented them developing their "SussexRoyal" brand.
Harry remains a prince and is fifth in line to the throne.
The couple kept their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, but are no longer addressed as His or Her Royal Highness (HRH). Harry also gave up his military titles.
When Harry's father, Charles, became King, the couple's two children became Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.
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Harry and Meghan moved to California in June 2020, saying they wanted space to raise Archie. Lilibet was born there in 2021.
In April 2024, documents filed to Companies House listed the US as the country where Harry is usually resident.
The couple no longer have an official UK residence.
In early 2023, they were asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage, a Grade-II listed property on the Windsor estate.
Conservative US think tank The Heritage Foundation has repeatedly raised questions about Harry's US immigration status because of his previous comments about taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
It wants to know whether he disclosed his drug use in his US visa application. Drug use can lead to applications being turned down, although officials have discretion to consider any such disclosure alongside other factors.
In September 2024, US judge Carl Nichols ruled Prince Harry's visa application should remain private, but the Heritage Foundation contested that finding, and the judge subsequently ordered the Department of Homeland Security to publish the files by 18 March.
However, they have been heavily redacted, and no details of what Harry put on his immigration form have been released.
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Prince Harry has returned to the UK several times during his various court cases against newspaper publishers.
He made a rare public appearance in London in September 2024 for the WellChild awards, celebrating the bravery of children and young people with serious illness or disability.
But before that, he had not been in the UK since attending a memorial service for his uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, in Norfolk in August 2024.
The Prince of Wales was also there, although the brothers reportedly did not speak to each other.
In May 2024, Harry attended a service at St Paul's Cathedral in London to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, the sporting competition for injured servicemen and women which he helped found.
He did not see his father Charles or his brother during the visit.
In February 2024, he flew back for a 45-minute meeting with Charles after Buckingham Palace announced that the King was being treated for cancer.
The duke and duchess both returned to the UK for the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, and her funeral in September of that year.
Harry attended his father's coronation in May 2023, without Meghan.
As working royals, they received 95% of their annual income from Harry's father, then Prince of Wales. The taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant made up the other 5%.
When they stepped down as senior royals, King Charles gave them "a substantial sum" to help establish their new life.
Harry and Meghan set up the Archewell charitable foundation, and entered into a number of commercial arrangements with private companies.
In February 2024 the couple launched their Sussex.com website, which said they were "shaping the future through business and philanthropy".
Rebranding the new brand
In March 2024, Meghan launched what appeared to be a new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, named after a term used to describe the Santa Barbara area where she and her family live.
Initial details were limited, but in April 2024, pictures of branded jam jars circulated on social media, suggesting it might sell food products.
In February 2025, the Duchess announced the brand had been renamed "As Ever", with jam, tea, "cookie mixes", and flower sprinkles listed for sale on its website.
Television
The Sussexes' media company, Archewell Productions, makes programmes for the Netflix streaming service under a deal thought to be worth millions of dollars.
In April 2024, Archewell said two new series were in production, one celebrating "the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining, and friendship", and another exploring the world of professional polo.
Polo was broadcast in December 2024.
With Love, Meghan - which Netflix described as a lifestyle show, blending "practical how-tos and candid conversation" - began on 4 March.
A second series will be broadcast in autumn 2025.
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The couple previously featured in the Harry and Meghan documentary series, where they talked about life in the Royal Family, and in The Heart of Invictus series, which discussed the duke's emotional "unravelling" after military service in Afghanistan.
Podcasts
Archewell also made podcasts for Spotify under a contract thought to be worth $25m (£19.7m).
This included a series called Archetypes, which featured the duchess in conversation with other well-known women.
The arrangement ended in June 2023.
In February 2024, Meghan announced a new podcast deal with Lemonada Media. The first programme is expected later in 2025.
Books
Harry's memoir, Spare, was published in January 2023.
It discussed his relationship with his brother and father, as well as his grief over the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
The book's publishers promised $1.5m (£1.18m) and £300,000 respectively would be given to the Sentebale and WellChild charities.
Meghan wrote a children's book, called The Bench, in 2021.
Inheritance
William and Harry received the bulk of Princess Diana's £13m fortune when she died in 1997.
In a 2021 interview, Harry told Oprah Winfrey his share of the money funded his family's move to the US.
He is also thought to have inherited millions from his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother.
It is not known whether Queen Elizabeth left him any money.
Acting
During her acting career, the Duchess of Sussex was reportedly paid $50,000 (£40,000) for each episode of the legal drama Suits.
She appeared in more than 100 episodes.
After stepping back from official duties, the duke and duchess were no longer afforded the security arrangements provided for senior royals.
When Harry first left the UK, he said it would be too dangerous to bring his family back without adequate police protection, and took the government to court.
Home Office lawyers said the duke would still have publicly funded police security in the UK, under "bespoke arrangements" - an approach which the High Court ruled in February 2024 "was, and is, legally sound".
In June, Harry's legal team said he had been given permission to challenge the High Court decision in the Court of Appeal.
An earlier separate court ruling rejected the prince's request to be allowed to pay privately for more substantial protection.
In January 2025, Prince Harry settled a case with News Group Newspapers (NGN), after it offered a "full and unequivocal apology" for "serious intrusion" into his private life between 1996 and 2011, and "incidents of unlawful activity" by private investigators.
It agreed to pay him an undisclosed amount of damages.
NGN, which owns the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times and published the News of the World before its 2011 closure, also apologised for serious intrusion into the private life of Prince Harry's late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
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Harry also settled a phone-hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers in February 2024.
His lawyer said the duke had been awarded "substantial" damages. He was also granted £140,600 in damages in another part of the case.
A separate court case over claims from the duke and others that the Daily Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, unlawfully obtained information about him continues.