When the Duke of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that his family had “literally” cut him off financially, sources close to the Prince of Wales could not hide their surprise.
The bank statements, they said, told a different story.
It has now emerged that the Prince of Wales gave the Duke and Duchess a “substantial sum” when they stepped back from their official roles, apparently contradicting Prince Harry’s claim that they had only been able to afford their new life in California because of his inheritance from his mother.
The Clarence House annual review revealed that Prince Charles gave a total of £4.5 million to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the last financial year, down from £5.6 million the previous year.
A Clarence House spokesperson confirmed that it included a "substantial sum" to help the Sussexes following their departure from royal life, payments that ended last summer.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
“The Prince of Wales … allocated a substantial sum to support them with this transition.”
He described the couple's departure from the working Royal family as "a matter of enormous sadness to the family,” but added: “The Prince wanted to help make this work.
“I betray no confidence when I say they've been very successful in becoming financially independent.”
It also emerged that the investigation into alleged bullying by the Duchess of Sussex, which is being conducted by an external law firm, is being paid for privately.
Buckingham Palace declined to confirm which member of the Royal family was footing the bill but said no taxpayers’ money was being spent on the probe.
Details of the review were expected to be included in the annual report, but it has not yet been completed and aides declined to reveal when its conclusions might be published.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes insisted that there was no contradiction on timings and that it was “inaccurate” to suggest otherwise.
“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,” she 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.”
In the interview, the Duke told Oprah: “my family literally cut me off financially… in the first half, the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mum left me, and, without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
Buckingham Palace has also admitted it was failing in its efforts to improve diversity as it published staffing figures for the first time, in the wake of the Sussexes’ racism allegations.
The Sovereign Grant report, published on Thursday, revealed that 8.5 per cent of employees at the palace are from an ethnic minority background. Aides said they hoped to increase that figure to 10 per cent by the end of 2022.
A senior palace source acknowledged they “must do more” to improve diversity, adding: “We are not where we would like to be despite our efforts.”
The aide said the figures had been published so there could be “no place to hide” and they could be held accountable if no progress was made.
Clarence House revealed that eight per cent of its staff were from ethnic minority backgrounds, which it also admitted was "not where we need to be".
It comes just months after the Sussexes accused the Royal family of racism, claiming that concerns had been raised about the colour of their unborn son’s skin tone.
In the UK, around 13 per cent of the UK population is from a minority ethnic background.