How much money are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle making from Netflix and Spare book deals?

Before Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal life as senior royals in January 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex received 95% of their income from Harry’s father, the now-King Charles.

Charles’ estate covered costs including their public duties and some personal expenses, and also paid Prince William and Kate Middleton, while Harry and Meghan received the other 5% of their income from the tax-payer funded Sovereign Grant. 

While Harry and Meghan received almost £5 million in the first year of their marriage, the couple now look to other income sources as they continue to live away from the Royal Family in Montecito, California.

Despite their change of income and location, the couple's net worth has not changed their whopping combined net worth of approximately $60 million - but how much money do they 'earn' from their new commercial arrangements? PeopleWorld takes a look:

Archewell Productions

Echoing that of Prince Edward’s production company Ardent Productions, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle established Archewell Productions, which has now created TV programmes, movies and podcasts worth over $135 million.

The couple reached a reported $100 million deal with streaming giant Netflix to create several productions for the site, including some where they will feature, with documentaries, feature films, scripted series and children’s shows all lined up.

Harry and Meghan said: “Our focus will be creating content that informs but also gives hope. As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us as is powerful storytelling through a truthful and relatable lens.”

In addition to their docu-series Harry & Meghan, where they spoke about ‘their story’, Prince Harry can currently be seen in Paralympics documentary ‘Rising Phoenix’ on Netflix.

Archewell also signed a three-year deal with Spotify to create podcasts such as Meghan’s Archetypes, worth around $18 million, and Meghan worked with Disney to narrate the Elephant documentary, which will surely add to the family’s income.

TV appearances

It must be noted that despite the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appearing in multiple televised interviews, crucially one with their friend Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, the couple were not paid for the CBS appearance, so did not make add any profits to their net worth through this venture.

For Harry’s four massive TV appearances including interviews with Stephen Colbert and on 60 Minutes, it is not known if he took funds while doing promo for his memoir, Spare.

Spare and other books

A 'measly' $20 million deal was signed between Prince Harry and Penguin publishing house for his tell-all memoir Spare and for a reported two other books.

Another book about ‘leadership and philanthropy’ is allegedly in the works, as the publisher revealed £1.25 million of proceeds from Spare would be donated to Sentebale charity and £300,000 to WellChild.

‘Spare’ may be the book most connected to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the moment after the former came clean about his frostbitten nether region and his relationship with his family, Meghan in fact wrote a book two years ago called The Bench.

Family fortunes

If Harry and Meghan were technically ‘cut off’ from the Royal Family before going to the US, how did they make their move to Montecito?

Harry explained his inheritance to Oprah in 2021, “I’ve got what my mum left me. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” referencing Princess Diana’s £13 million fortune that was passed on to William and Harry following her death in 1997.

The Prince also reportedly inherited millions from the Queen Mother in 2002 which may add to their pot, although it has not been confirmed whether Harry was left any money by Queen Elizabeth last year.

Therefore, adding together there $135 million income from Archewell, the estimated $22 million fee for Spare and other publications, the couple have earned themselves quite a fortune, before adding on Harry's inheritance.