Meghan Markle and Prince Harry ‘Watching Every Dollar,’ Reluctant to ‘Dip Into His Inheritance’

The Duchess of Sussex was talking about money — and the worry of needing more. On the finale episode of her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast last year, Meghan sat down with Spanx billionaire Sara Blakely and opened up about the complicated emotions surrounding wealth. “I think so many women, especially, we’re taught to not even talk about money, and there’s lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot,” she said. “And at the same time, there’s a scarcity mindset that it’s easy to attach to, of like, ‘I’ll never have enough.'”

That fear is becoming all too real behind the walls of the nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom Montecito, Calif., mansion the 44-year-old shares with husband Prince Harry, 41, and their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, who turns 5 June 4. Star has learned the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are facing a distressing new reality as their earning power dims, their bills explode and the royal secrets that once made them so bankable have been spent. “Harry and Meghan are watching every dollar right now. Their cash flow, or lack of it, is a major concern and it’s been that way for a while,” a source tells Star. “They may be multi-millionaires with savings they’ve tucked away for emergencies, but their outgoings are absolutely huge.”

The Sussexes need “at least $6 million annually to break even and cover their basic bills,” says the source. Costs include a reported $3 million-a-year security tab, Page Six reported, and mortgage and interest payments on the 7.4-acre estate they bought for $14.65 million in 2020 in an area packed with billionaire neighbors such as Beanie Baby tycoon Ty Warner. The anxiety, says the source, is constant, especially after their media ventures have mostly fizzled. “It all boils down to the fact that they’re not getting those lucrative paydays right now, or at least Harry certainly isn’t,” the source adds. “Meghan is effectively the family breadwinner. She’s working her socks off on her As Ever brand and other business ventures — that’s providing the bulk of their earnings.”

Purpose Vs. Paychecks

For Harry, the problem isn’t laziness or a lack of passion. Since leaving royal life in 2020, the British army veteran has thrown himself into the causes closest to his heart, from the Invictus Games for wounded warriors to mental health advocacy and other philanthropic work. But those projects do not pay like streaming deals or tell-all memoirs once did, and critics like to point out the prince is still living like a royal without the kind of income that once made such a life possible. “Harry’s way more focused on philanthropy and nobody would deny that it’s what he does best,” says the source. “But that doesn’t pay the bills and it’s asking an awful lot of Meghan to keep propping them up for the foreseeable future.”

Harry has brought in money before. He joined Silicon Valley mental-health startup BetterUp in 2021 as chief impact officer, with his salary once rumored to be around $1 million a year, though his current earnings are unclear. He scored a blockbuster publishing payday with his 2023 memoir, Spare, earning an estimated $27 million from the bestselling book. But the irony is that his biggest paydays came from the royal rupture that tore his family apart — and that’s not a revenue stream he can keep mining forever. And though he’s won or settled legal battles against U.K. publishers, those funds have mostly been “paid out to lawyers,” says the source. Plus NewsNation recently reported that his speaking fee has dropped from $1 million in 2020 to $50,000 per event today.

Then there’s his inherited wealth. In 2021, he revealed in a CBS interview that he used the money his late mother, Princess Diana, left him — an estimated $14 million — to start over in America. And though he inherited another estimated $10 million from great-grandmother Elizabeth the Queen Mother when he turned 40, that cushion is not endless. With security, mortgage interest, upkeep, staff, travel and legal costs eating into the Sussexes’ fortune, it’s unclear how long he can protect his nest egg. “He’d love to make more but he’s hampered by the fact that he’s in Hollywood and not really in the same league as Meghan when it comes to business,” says the source. “And he’s loath to dip into his inheritance.”

Rich Friends

That leaves Meghan under mounting pressure to keep the cash coming in. Since the Sussexes’ royal exit, the former Suits actress has worked to transform herself from duchess-in-exile into a lifestyle brand founder, investor, producer, podcast host and influencer — with As Ever at the center of her latest reinvention. The luxury food and wine brand has become her biggest focus as the Sussexes’ Hollywood deals have started to falter. Their Spotify podcast contract, reportedly worth $20 million, ended prematurely in 2023, and their five-year Netflix production deal — worth $60 million, Variety reported in March — was replaced with a less lucrative first-look arrangement last summer. Meghan and Netflix also ended their financial partnership in As Ever earlier this year, though both sides insisted the move was planned. Meanwhile, her home entertaining series, With Love, Meghan, is expected to continue only as seasonal specials after its second season and 2025 holiday installment underperformed.

But Meghan has kept pushing. She’s invested in and aligned herself with female-founded wellness, style and beauty-adjacent companies like Clevr Blends, Cesta Collective, Highbrow Hippie, Midi Health and, most recently, the AI-powered fashion platform OneOff, where fans can shop her looks. She’s also surrounded herself with a powerful circle of wealthy women, with tastemakers including Lauren Sánchez Bezos and IT Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima — who, Page Six reported, gave Meghan a ride to a high-profile business summit on her private plane — showing support for her latest ventures.

To critics, the optics aren’t good, as a duchess once poised to command the global stage is now reduced to relying on her billionaire-adjacent friends, investor circles and celebrity platforms to keep the Sussex machine running. With every new project, appearance and alliance, critics are asking the question: How long can they keep projecting a billionaire lifestyle if the money behind it is no longer flowing like it once did?

For Meghan, it’s a survival strategy. But to Harry, says the source, the relentless chase has become harder to endure. “Harry admires Meghan’s work ethic and determination but seeing her hustle for money like this does makes him cringe,” says the source. “It’s no secret he’s been feeling uneasy about the materialistic, superficial nature of Hollywood for some time now and seeing his wife at the center of it can be hard.”

That tension has only deepened, says the source, as Meghan leans further in, even dipping a toe back into entertainment by filming a cameo in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios rom-com Close Personal Friends last November and shooting a guest-judging spot on MasterChef Australia during the Sussexes’ April trip Down Under. “There’s a lot of buzz that Meghan’s pushing for roles, which would help with some of the bills, of course,” says the source. “But it wouldn’t be her ideal scenario, and no doubt it would appall the royal family as well.”

The timing is awkward. Just as Harry has been trying to repair his relationship with his cancer-stricken father, King Charles III, 77, and rebuild goodwill with The Firm ahead of the 2027 Invictus Games in England, Meghan’s increasingly commercial reinvention risks confirming the royal family’s worst suspicions — that the Sussexes are still trading on their titles to fund a life they can no longer easily afford.

No Easy Path

For all the tension, divorce may be the one thing Harry and Meghan can least afford. And going broke — or even being seen as broke — would be a nightmare scenario. A split, says the source, could be the most expensive decision of all and risk exposing the financial reality they’ve worked so hard to keep hidden. “Harry and Meghan are definitely worth a whole lot more together than apart,” says the source. “So for the time being it appears they’re stuck with each other, whether they like it or not!”