Prince Harry will receive £8million when he turns 40, after the Queen Mother set aside money for her great-grandchildren 30 years ago

Prince Harry is expected to receive £8million when he turns 40, after the Queen Mother set aside a lump sum for her great-grandchildren 30 years ago.

In 1994, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, set up a trust worth £19 million. Prince Harry was only ten years old at the time. The trust was to be divided among all her grandchildren.

They were reportedly due to receive the first payment on their 21st birthday and the second on their 40th birthday. However, palace sources claim that Harry received a larger sum than William.

A former Palace aide told the Times: ‘There was a trust fund set up at the time. It was a way for the Queen Mother to put money aside for when her great-grandchildren were older and a way to pass on some of her wealth in a tax-efficient way.

In 1994, a trust of £19 million was established by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (bottom right), when Prince Harry was just ten years old. It was divided among all her grandchildren.

On their 21st birthday, each brother would receive £6 million, rising to £8 million on their 40th birthday, which Harry will celebrate next week on September 15.

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They continued: “It was a way of shielding part of her estate from them.”

On their 21st birthday, each brother would receive £6 million, rising to £8 million on their 40th birthday. Harry will celebrate this next week, on September 15.

It was believed that Prince William and Prince Harry, along with their nieces and nephews, the Princess Royal’s children Zara and Peter Phillips, and the Duke of York’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, along with the children of Princess Margaret, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, would be the beneficiaries of the fund.

The fund was reportedly set up to help the Queen Mother avoid inheritance tax on her very generous bequest to her great-grandchildren.

In April, it was revealed that Prince Harry had already earned £22 million from his book Spare, which became the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever in the UK after it was published by Penguin Random House in January 2023.

Harry used the revealing book to make several claims about his family, including William calling Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “hurtful,” and Charles refusing to allow Meghan to join Harry in Scotland because the late Queen was dying.

In 2023, Royal author Tom Bower claimed Meghan was “surprised and disappointed” when she realised Harry had “very little money” – an estimated fortune of £35million.

The author, who wrote the 2022 book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, discussed the duchess’s misconceptions about the royal family, describing the former Suits actress as “obsessed with money.”

The fund was reportedly set up to help the Queen Mother avoid inheritance tax on her very generous gift to her great-grandchildren.

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The expert said: ‘Her great surprise and disappointment was that Prince Harry had very little money.

“She thought he was worth hundreds of millions, maybe billions, and now she has to make up for it.”

When they were senior, working members of the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were largely funded by King Charles’ estate in the Duchy of Cornwall.

After the couple decided to leave the business, it was reported that Charles’ £1.2 billion estate in the Duchy of Cornwall was earning his youngest son an average of around £2.3 million a year.

However, the couple said that this amount covered 95 percent of their office expenses.

The remaining five percent of their annual income came from the taxpayer-funded £82 million annual Sovereign Grant, which is given to the most senior members of the royal family.

Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the company and moved to the US, their joint bank account has increased by £100 million, despite their declining popularity.

After their Oprah interview, for which they were not paid, a series of lucrative deals and jobs followed.

First there was the £25m Spotify deal for Archewell Audio, then an £81m Netflix deal for their fly-on-the-wall series, and then a £32m deal for four books, starting with Spare, now an international bestseller.

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Large sums of money were also reportedly paid for speeches and appearances at various events in the US, including a JP Morgan summit.

Every prince needs a castle and it looks like the couple have struck a sweet deal, having taken out a £7.5million mortgage on their nine-bedroom, 13-bathroom, £11million mansion in Montecito, California.

Harry and Meghan can also make money by giving lucrative after-dinner speeches.

GDA Speakers, whose clients include Nicole Kidman and Diane Keaton, said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be paid much higher fees than regular celebrities, even without their HRH titles.

Last November, wealthy Americans spent up to $1 million (£800,000) per ticket to meet Prince Harry and Markle at a glittering gala in New York.