Buckingham Palace released its annual financial report on Thursday.
The report details the royal family’s financial activities under the Sovereign Grant, including how much money the monarchy used as income supplementation.
Along with the release of the report, Clarence House, Prince Charles’ residence, released a statement about its financial support of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as they stepped back from the royal family.
“As we’ll all remember in January 2020 when the duke and duchess announced that they were going to move away from the working Royal Family, the duke said that they would work towards becoming financially independent,” a Clarence House spokesperson said, Sky News reported.
“The Prince of Wales allocated a substantial sum to support them with this transition,” the spokesperson said, adding that the financial support ended in the summer of 2020.
Some outlets suggested that the statement from Clarence House contradicted Harry’s comment during his and Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March that his family “literally cut me off financially” after they stepped back.
A spokesperson for Harry and Markle said in a statement to Insider that “it’s inaccurate to suggest that there’s a contradiction” in Harry and Charles’ stories, because Harry was referring to the beginning of the fiscal year in the interview.
“The Duke’s comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which starts annually in April,” the spokesperson said.
“This is the same date that the ‘transitional year’ of the Sandringham agreement began and is aligned with the timeline that Clarence House referenced,” the spokesperson added.
