- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are setting up their own royal household separate to Prince William and Kate Middleton's at Kensington Palace.
- William reportedly stepped in to help the Duke and Duchess of Sussex create the team they needed as they start this new chapter in their lives.
- Harry and Meghan's household will be set up this spring and will be based in Buckingham Palace, but until then, they are still supported by Kensington Palace.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently announced their plans to start their own royal household separate from that of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Kensington Palace. The drastic shift means the couple will have a separate staff with offices based at Buckingham Palace, which will be part of the Buckingham Palace communications team and report to the Queen’s communications secretary.
Although William will no longer be working with the same staff as his brother, he still advocated for Harry and Meghan to get set with a proper team as they set off to start their own household. Royal correspondents Emily Andrews and Omid Scobie discussed the split in the latest episode of their podcast, On Heir.
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"A lot of their [the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's] team will be shared amongst the Duke of York, and Prince Edward, and Princess Anne," Scobie says in the episode. "The same communications staff that are working across this sort of general office there [at Buckingham Palace] will also be at their disposal, too. They won't be having their own kind of exclusive team just for themselves.
"From what I understand, their budget for the team wasn't particularly big, and it was actually Prince William who had to step in and fight to get Harry a little bit more money to spend on building a team because he understands what this means to Harry and how much he wants to achieve and also how important Harry and Meghan are for the image, the brand and the future of the royal family."
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Andrews pointed out earlier in the episode that "the office at Buckingham Palace will be funded in three parts: it's being funded privately by the Prince of Wales from the Duchy of Cornwall and the Queen from the Duchy of Lancaster, their private incomes, and then their communications team will be paid for by the sovereign grant, which is the taxpayer money that's given to the Queen to pay for members of the royal family."
She also said, "We understand Charles and the Queen did not want the Sussexes to have their own independent household, and indeed, how could they have their own independent household, because the money has to come from somewhere."
Scobie pointed out that it was made clear to him and other royal correspondents that Prince Harry "is not a direct heir to the throne, and only a direct heir to the throne can have their own household." Harry is sixth in line for the throne after all, and will continue to get pushed behind Prince William's children and future grandchildren in the line of succession.
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Meghan and Harry's household won't be officially set up until sometime this spring, and Kensington Palace will continue to support them in the meantime. However, they have already announced Sara Latham, a former senior advisor on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as their head of communications.
Meanwhile, Jason Knauf, who's been a communications secretary to William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan for a few years, has been appointed as senior advisor to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Christian Jones, known as the Deputy Communications Secretary to the Cambridges and Sussexes, will be communications secretary to William and Kate.
Subscribe and listen to On Heir here.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
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