Harry had little access to money

[babsanderson]

Harry was given Nottingham Cottage a 2 bedroom cottage presumably rent free. He was given security paid by the taxpayers. He was also given a clothing allowance from Charles to pay for clothes for formal public occasions.

But he obviously had little access to money. He bought his casual clothes cheap from TK Maxx and talks about drying shirts on radiators.

When he told Charles he was going to marry Meghan Charles said he could not afford to pay for Meghan and Harry as he was already paying for William and Catherine. Charles suggested Meghan continued working to pay for Garry and Meghan. Meghan paid for furniture from Ikea and sofa.com to improve the furnishings in Nottingham Cottage.

Charles paid for Harry and Meghan's wedding. Although Meghan paid for her own wedding dress. The taxpayers paid for the security.

Remember Harry and Meghan were working Royals.

The taxpayers paid for the renovation of Frogmore Cottage. A cost that Harry and Meghna paid back when they left the Royal Family.

The Civil List used to give a defined amount to each working Royal. But that was changed and all the money went to the heir to dole out.

The Queen and Charles appear to be remarkably stingy towards their own child and grandchild.

I suspect they didn't pay for anything.

May be part of his problem, he's now being asked to pay for things while he used to just get them given.

There's no 'maybe' about it. He did have access to millions.

Did he hold up a bank for the money for that Cotswolds cottage or what?

She should have married another actor then if it was about the swimming pool rather than merely falling in love with a person warts and all.

Apparently the relevant bit says:

We congratulated them on the renovation without holding back the compliments while feeling embarrassed of our IKEA lamps and the second-hand sofa we'd recently bought on sale with Meg's credit card on sofa.comm_
(I don't have the book so please correct the above if wrong). Anyway, that doesn't say they had to use Meghan's card, or that Harry was broke, just that they did use her card. Perhaps Harry's was tapped out after a holiday, maybe Meghan wanted the air miles. Maybe she had her card on her when they went shopping and he didn't. Sofa.com doesn't sell second hand sofas though, so I call bullshit on that part.

Who is Garry? Whoever it is, I don't think Charles should pay for him neither should the taxpayer.

But she wasn’t just marrying him, she was taking on a life void of privacy, giving up her career and so on.

She was essentially doing the same
job, generating the same publicity as her sister in law.

It’s the British royal family. Why are you guys so cheap ? she deserved a pool.

plus you can’t have a white princess with a pool and a black princess with no pool/living like a peasant by comparison and tell me that the institution isn’t unequal and racist.

It was unrealistic to expect that an established actress in her 30’s with her own, hard won, cushy lifestyle, would be happy with the setup.

She seemed more than happy with the set up though. So much so that she dropped everything to run across the world to marry a man she barely knew. Noone was forcing her to do any of that.

That stuff matter when you could have married a fellow actor that has mansions & sister in law has 3 houses.

I thought Meghan was a feminist? Why would she expect her money to come from a man and why is she comparing herself to her sister in law?

Marriage into the royal family gave Meghan fame, wealth and status she could never have come close to achieving on her own.

I don’t find ikea sofas very luxurious or comfortable- all those hard lines and thin cushions

@babsanderson I say this kindly but I really think it's more of a "man child" issue than funds issue. Again, I say this without judgment as we all have our own issues, and we all mature in our own time... But Harry does come across as someone lacking basic life skills and wanting to be coddled by a maternal figure.

Tk Maxx is on High St Ken – multiple people I've been close to live in that area are genuinely rich lazy shits who would live off Tesco Express meal deals in the day because it was the closest/most convenient thing, and drop eye watering amounts on clubs at night.

Meanwhile, I don't think he would have known how to properly shop for furniture so he just deferred to what Meghan knew/the simplest option.

From news articles he was clearly blowing wads on clubs and restaurants that cost 4 to 5 digit figures a night (especially for private seating etc - I've been in some of those named during my brief London life), multiple per night in fact. I find it hard to believe it was all 100% comped. I think his area of lifestyle expertise just lay in a different area from quality furnishings, etc.

That is his biggest mistake - going to TKMaxx...

Sure he should have gone to H&M?

But she made a choice. She wasn't some silly little girl barely out of school falling in love with the idea of talking to the animals and wearing a tiara to afternoon tea every day. She was a grown, supposedly intelligent, woman. If she cared about the lifestyle, marrying a British Prince was a daft idea.

Or she fell head over heels in love and the house shouldn't matter. It's hardly a hovel under a bridge. There's zero reason why an actress from America can't live in it.

That’s a very good point actually!

'plus you can’t have a white princess with a pool and a black princess with no pool/living like a peasant by comparison and tell me that the institution isn’t unequal and racist.'

I can't roll my eyes far enough at this garbage.

Harry and Meghan were married scant months before they buggered off. If they'd stayed around a bit longer they'd probably have got their 'grace and favour' apartment and a nice big house (although Frogmore cottage is hardly a shack). Kate and William lived on Anglesey then in Nott Cott following their wedding. They weren't immediately in a stately home. Perhaps this is another instance of Harry and Meghan expecting special treatment. Or others expecting it on their behalf.

Sorry my response was meant to be to tabulahrasa too

He definitely does complain about lack of money! It's a constant theme through the book talking about how he is not as privileged as people think, doesn't have a car, shops at TK Max as his budget from his father is allocated for specific expenses (ie formalwear) etc etc. And that's saying nothing about his complaints of being "cut off" by his father or his complaints in interviews that his father tightly controls the purse strings in their family.

Yes he doesn't explicitly say "they don't give me enough money, it's not fair" but the implication is very clearly there.

I thought the whole falling in love with a prince storyline involved not knowing who he was, being madly in love and happy to live in a hovel and continuing to work down the mine whilst living happily ever after.

Then finding out that they are really a prince and they live in a palace and it being amazing.

I think there seems to be an error between the Disney Version TM and the reality which Harry didn't explain whilst getting his leg over and should have done.

plus you can’t have a white princess with a pool the white princess married the future king. The black princess didn't, she chose of her own volition to marry someone clearly falling down the line to the throne who would never be equal to his brother in status. The future king has a pool. His brother doesn't.

and a black princess with no pool/living like a peasant by comparison haha yes a 10 bedroom, grade two listed cottage is clearly one step above a cardboard box 🙄🙄. Even by "comparison" Harry's home is not peasant like compared to Williams.

Kate and william did not live in Nottingham Cottage. It was always an additional house to their main residence.

Rich people can and In my experience quite often are tight af. Harry had absolutely no problem accessing money he just didn’t think that he should have to pay for anything.

Harry got MILLIONS from the estates of the Queen Mother and Diana. There's NO way on earth Harry was financially hard up or going without.

Disgusting to claim he was in a world where billions will never have the privileges or advantages the embittered rich boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth has always had!

Playing the world's smallest 🎻 here...........🤦‍♂️

It was reported in summer of 2014 that Cressida Bonas (girlfriend at the time) expressed surprise that she'd have to pay for her own airfare to accompany Harry to his mate's wedding. It wasn't her friend, it was for Guy Pelly, Harry's friend.
It is possible that he is just remarkably tight, given all of his tens of millions, that have now grown to hundreds of millions by selling lots of personal information...

Kate and William were living in Anglesey before they got married - they might have moved properties but they were already there.

There's never going to be a perfect comparison in timelines between the two couples because William and Kate had been together for a long time and were already living together pre engagement. William was also working in Anglesey. The Anglesey place was a pretty cheap rental

There was nothing whatsoever stopping Harry renting in a cheap part of the country. He chose to stay in Nott Cott, then Meghan came to join him around the time of their engagement. It was only meant to be temporary while the absolutely massive KP apartment was renovated for them.

This is utter BS. He is complains he isn’t a normal person in that he doesn’t own his own car - he is driving in secure cars everywhere. You cannot seriously believe Harry couldn’t get a Range Rover of his own if he wanted it, ffs middle income people can stretch to them. He doesn’t say he goes to TK Maxx because he can’t afford anything better, he says he loves he can get in and out, doesn’t gaf about his clothes. You are crackers if you think he has complained about a lack of money before he starts crying about Charles no longer shelling out for him. Utterly mad.

I always thought that the royals don't carry money - didn't Harry joke with James Corden about that in the bus skit?
Should they need ready cash/card, they have a minion in attendance to take care of paying.

He was worth over 30 million personally when he met Meghan and clearly had enough cash to buy drugs on the regular

This. It just isn't true. He had an annuity of half a million a year from age 25 and had inherited 17 million just two years before getting with Megan.

What he's complaining about is not being given more money from the Civil List.