Royal Critics Are Speculating That a Large Portion of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle's Archewell Budget Came From Oprah Winfrey Donation
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Prince Harry is currently suing Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail, for invasion of privacy and other criminal activities, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping the Daily Mail from diving into his tax records. The 2021 tax filings for Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation are public record, but the media outlet is taking a massive swing and speculating where their investment money came from.
The timing of this revelation is curious, given that the Duke of Sussex just gave a scathing testimony that pointed fingers at both the U.K. press and the royal family for being in cahoots with each other. The tax records, obtained by the Daily Mail, show that Archewell received $13,005,660 in donations in 2021 with $10 million coming from one donor and $3 million from another benefactor. The remaining money came from “contributions and grants” or “investment income.”
The outlet is laying out claims that it was Oprah Winfrey who made that whopping $10 million donation “in return for the interview the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave in March 2021, which rocked Buckingham Palace.” That’s a pretty big rumor to put out there, especially when The Washington Post shared in a 2021 article that the media mogul “sold the Harry and Meghan interview to CBS’s entertainment division, the crown jewel of ViacomCBS, for a reported $7 million” while also adding in parentheses “(Harry and Meghan were not paid).” So, that would mean the Daily Mail is accusing Winfrey of making a back-door donation to Archewell in exchange for their time in front of the cameras. That’s a big statement to make and there’s no evidence to prove that anything like this ever happened. (And it also feels like a really huge amount of money, even from the very generous Winfrey.)
The paper even goes on to hypothesize that the remaining $3 million came from Harry’s $20 million advance from his memoir, Spare. Again, the Daily Mail doesn’t back up this claim with any proof, but it sure seems convenient that they release this little nugget of information in the same week of the court hearings.
Before you go, click here to see more of Meghan Markle & Prince Harry’s milestones since leaving the royal family.