Royal Charities Under Suspicion

The Charity Commission in the U.K. will investigate the philanthropic arms of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex over “inappropriate” transfers of funds following their official split.

Princes Harry and William previously ran their projects through the same charity, now known as The Royal Foundation. But when Harry and his wife Meghan Markle opted to set up Sussex Royal, their funds were split. A U.K. group known as the Republic accused the pair of mishandling the transfer of funds, alleging that in addition to money being funneled to Sussex Royal, funds ended up in Travalyst, Harry’s eco-tourism project.

Republic’s letter to the U.K.-based Charity Commission states: “The Royal Foundation gave a grant of 145,000 ($183,000) to Sussex Royal and 144,901 ($183,057) to a non-charitable organization (Travalyst). In both instances it appears the only rationale for the decision was the personal relationship between two patrons, the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge.”

Later, the Queen ruled that Harry and Meghan could not benefit from their royal links, so Sussex Royal was forced to close. Paperwork is still being process.

At the time, a friend of the couple told Newsweek: “During its 12-months, the sole program in operation and development at the charity has been the sustainable travel and tourism initiative, Travalyst. Travalyst is now operating as an independent non-profit based in the UK, and all assets from Sussex Royal will transfer over.”

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But the Republic says that Travalyst should never have received the funds as it is not a registered charity.