Prince Harry’s Reps Fully Shut Down “Defamatory” and “Insulting” Claims He Mishandled Royal Funds
Anti-monarchy campaigners have accused Prince Harry of inappropriately using more than $350,000 from The Royal Foundation.
Harry’s reps released a statement calling the claims offensive, defamatory, and insulting.
Today in vaguely messy royal news, Prince Harry and Prince William have been accused of mishandling donated funds following Harry’s split from The Royal Foundation—and according to Newsweek, they’ve been “reported for inappropriate use of more $350,000.”
Basically, a group of anti-monarchy campaigners called Republic had a problem with Royal Foundation money going to Prince Harry’s eco-tourism venture Travalyst when Sussex Royal shut down. To quote chief executive of Republic Graham Smith:
“Maybe I’m missing something here, but I find it difficult to believe that a charity making an independent and impartial decision would decide to make these payments. The Royal Foundation has lost almost ￡300,000 to Prince Harry’s pet projects. Harry’s own charity is now closing and he appears to be taking the charity’s money with him. I can’t see how that isn’t a breach of charity law. Whatever the legal position, this looks unethical and underhand. People donate money to a charity expecting it to be used to fund the charity’s objectives, not to be given away to support a patron’s other projects.”
But Prince Harry is not having it, and his spokesperson fully shut down the claims in a statement:
“The Duke of Sussex has always and continues to remain deeply committed to his charitable work. This is his life’s focus, and his devotion to charity is at the very core of the principles he lives by and is obvious through the impact and success of his many charitable projects throughout the UK and beyond. To this point, it is deeply offensive to today see false claims made about The Duke of Sussex and his charitable work. It is both defamatory and insulting to all the outstanding organisations and people he has partnered with. Travalyst (which was founded within Sussex Royal) is a nonprofit organisation for which The Duke receives no commercial or financial gain, as is the case with all of his charitable commitments. The Duke has not, nor has he ever, had any personal financial interest in his charitable work. All of The Duke’s charitable activities are fully transparent as well as compliant with Charity Commission guidelines, and moreover with his own moral compass.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for The Royal Foundation said, “The grants made to Sussex Royal were to support the charitable work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They were fully in line with governance requirements and were reported transparently.”
And a Charity Commission spokesperson said (truly, so many spokespeople, so little time): “We have received a complaint on this issue. As with all concerns raised with us, we will assess the information provided to determine whether or not there is a role for the Commission. We have not made any determination of wrongdoing.”
Guess we’ll see what happens….
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