Republic is an organization that campaigns for the monarchy to be abolished and the Queen to be replaced with an elected, democratic head of state. Its CEO Graham Smith told Express.co.uk it should have been immediately obvious from day one that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had to rely on their own funds.
Mr Smith said: “The Queen should have made it abandonedly clear that if you’re not going to be doing anything for the British public, I wouldn’t say any of them do much anyway, if they are not doing anything at all, they cannot expect any public funding.
“So, if they are going to go and live in North America it should have been immediately obvious from day one that they had to rely on their own funds for everything including security.
“I think the whole thing was dealt with very badly not least by Harry and Meghan.
“They seemed to think from day one that they could carry on using public resources to fund their private lives.”
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Despite Mr Smith’s claims, according to the Sussex Royal website, as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family, Harry and Meghan “no longer receive funding through the Sovereign Grant”, which is the money paid from the Government to the Royal Family to cover expenses for official duties and looking after royal palaces.
The former working royals are therefore financially independent.
Mr Smith also told Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to fund themselves following their decision to “abandon” the Royal Family.
The CEO of Republic outlined to Express.co.uk that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should not be funded by the UK taxpayer whether they are based in Britain or abroad.
Mr Smith said: “We should not be funding Meghan and Harry at all whether they are abroad or here.
“But I think they will be absolutely fine and we don’t owe them a living, we don’t owe them a penny.
“They ought to go and find their own source of income or live off what they have.”
In a statement on their website, Meghan and Harry said: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex take great pride in their work and are committed to continuing their charitable endeavours as well as establishing new ones.
“In addition, they value the ability to earn a professional income, which in the current structure they are prohibited from doing.
“For this reason they have made the choice to become members of the Royal Family with financial independence.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped down as senior members of the Royal Family at the end of March 2020.
Following their departure from the Royal Family the couple spent time in Canada before moving to California.
