Prince Harry was reportedly the honoree of a “low-key” birthday party thrown by wife Meghan Markle in celebration of the big 4-0 over the weekend, but his bank account balance also reportedly got higher as he marked the milestone.
Harry, the Duke of Sussex, received $10 million from a trust set up by his great-grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the Times of London reported. It’s the second part of a bequest the monarch set up for her great-grandchildren, following the first disbursement of $15 million on his 21st birthday.
According to the Times, the trust was set up in 1994, when Harry was 10 years old.
“There was a trust fund set up at the time. It was a way in which the Queen Mother could set aside money for when her great-grandchildren were older and a way of passing a slice of her estate down in a tax-efficient way,” an unnamed former palace aide told the newspaper. “It was a way in which some of her estate could be ring-fenced for them.”
Because Harry’s older brother, Prince William, inherited the Duchy of Cornwall due to his status as heir, Harry’s earmarked slice of the late Queen Mother’s generosity is believed to be larger than William’s. Other beneficiaries of trusts set up reportedly include Zara and Peter Phillips, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and Princess Margaret’s children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto.