Prince Harry is fighting back hard against some pretty serious allegations made against him and Prince William by an anti-monarchy group. The group, called Republic, has publicly taken William and Harry to task for some financial transactions that occurred between the Royal Foundation (a charitable entity) and two other entities affiliated with Prince Harry.
Long before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from their duties as senior royals, they were affiliated with the Royal Foundation along with Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Then, Harry and Meghan broke away from the Royal Foundation and established Sussex Royal, their own independent charitable organization.
In addition, Prince Harry also established an independent entity called Travalyst, which is a non-profit that promotes sustainable travel.
Well, back in December, the Royal Foundation reported in its annual report for 2019 that it had paid £145,000 to Sussex Royal and £100,000 to Travalyst. This was ostensibly due to the split between Prince William and Prince Harry as far as their charitable endeavors go.
But Republic has taken issue with the payments, saying that the transfer of funds was a breach of the charities’ duties to act independently and a conflict of interest.
And now the Telegraph is reporting that the Royal Foundation could face an investigation about the way in which it helped Prince Harry and Meghan Markle start their own independent organizations.
Interestingly, Prince William and Prince Harry have each responded to Republic’s outcry, but in very different ways.
The Royal Foundation (Prince William’s entity) stated to the Telegraph that “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.”
But representatives for Prince Harry seemed to express more outrage at Republic’s allegations.
A spokesperson for Harry explained that Harry’s devotion to charity is at the “very core of the principles he lives by” and that “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 organization and people he has partnered with.”
Those are two very different approaches to denying Republic’s claims. Prince William’s response was matter-of-fact, and it explained that the transactions were legal, whereas Prince Harry took great offense that anyone dared to ask questions or investigate his entities’ activities.
This seems wholly in line with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new stance, which is to go after the media when they don’t like what’s printed. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how all this plays out. Chances are, Republic is making claims that won’t be substantiated in the end.
After all, if the Royal Foundation is right and the transactions were transparent and made via all existing regulations, Prince William and Prince Harry have nothing to worry about…but Harry will probably still be outraged.
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