The Meghan Markle effect hits Prince Charles's wallet as royal spending jumps nearly $2 million
It’s a good thing Prince Charles likes his new daughter-in-law, because Meghan Markle has reportedly cost him a pretty penny since joining the royal family.
Figures show that the amount the Prince of Wales spends on funding the activities of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry increased by 40 percent when a certain 36-year-old Suits actress arrived on the scene, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reports.
Prince Charles paid $6.5 million for Prince Harry, Prince William, and Kate last year, compared with the previous year’s $4.6 million — an increase of about $1.88 million.
This spending is said to have risen at the end of 2017, when Harry and Meghan became engaged, and is thought to have been put toward her public engagements as his new fiancée.
For example, the $78,000 Ralph & Russo dress Meghan wore for her engagement photos at Frogmore House most likely contributed to the elevated spending.
But the outlays are’t just about new royal family members.
The higher spending is thought to reflect the young royals’ undertaking more duties as Queen Elizabeth scales back her workload.
How does Prince Charles afford all this? He pays for his children and their spouses through his hereditary estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, which owns 131,000 acres across 23 counties in southwest England.
This estate is thought to bring in an average $28.5 million a year.
The Telegraph also reports that the royal family’s travel costs jumped $5.9 million in 2016 to $6.1 million in 2017. The most expensive trip was Charles and Camilla’s royal tour of India, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore in October 2017, whose price tag was a staggering $476,000.
There’s also the royal train — which the queen and Meghan used just weeks ago to visit Cheshire, England — which reportedly adds about $26,000 per trip to the royal budget.
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