LONDON — Prince Harry and his spouse, Meghan, have repaid the two.four million kilos, or $3.2 million, in taxpayer cash that funded the renovations of their residence on the grounds of Windsor Fort, the couple mentioned on Monday.
After they gave up their royal duties in January, the couple, recognized formally because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, had pledged to pay taxpayers again for the 2019 refurbishment of the residence, Frogmore Cottage. Although they’re now dwelling in California, they’ve stored their residence in Britain.
James Holt, a spokesman for the couple, mentioned Harry had repaid the cash to the Sovereign Grant, the general public fund that goes to the royal household. The contribution “absolutely coated the mandatory renovation prices of Frogmore Cottage,” the spokesman mentioned.
The couple’s announcement got here lower than every week after they signed a megadeal with Netflix to create documentaries, documentary sequence, function movies, scripted exhibits and youngsters’s programming underneath a brand new manufacturing firm. It was not instantly clear how a lot the couple can be paid.
The pledge to repay the funds got here as a part of a severance deal after the duke and duchess abruptly introduced in January that they might step again from royal duties, additionally agreeing to forgo public funding of their actions and not use their most unique titles, His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness. The settlement allowed them to maintain the house, which was given to them by Queen Elizabeth II.
Leaving partially to change into financially impartial, Harry and Meghan have been dwelling within the Los Angeles space since March. They signed a deal in June with the Harry Walker Company for talking engagements, with per-speech charges estimated at $1 million.
Even earlier than the royal break up, the couple had been criticized for utilizing taxpayer funds for the renovations. In search of extra room earlier than the beginning of their son, they moved out of a cottage within the grounds of Kensington Palace in April 2019 and transformed a number of houses that had been utilized by property employees right into a single, bigger residence.
The worth tag struck critics as extravagant, and public spending on the royal household has lengthy been a supply of competition.
“It was one thing that stored looming, rearing its ugly head, and now that may be put to mattress,” mentioned Penny Junor, a royal biographer.
