Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s charity is down to just two employees ahead of its much publicized rebrand — as the couple is desperate to save cash, multiple source told Page Six.
“Harry and Meghan have been forced to downsize the staff as it was costing them so much,” said one source.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced last week that their Archewell Foundation will become Archewell Philanthropies, claiming that “moving to a ‘philanthropies’ model signals something designed to grow and evolve over time, with more flexibility and less administrative burden.”
But we’re told Harry and Markle have, in fact, spent the past few months in deep discussion about the charity’s future as it has struggled with funding.
“The big question was, would Archewell close, or would another charity take it over?” the source said. “Harry and Meghan were looking to get a fiscal sponsor, someone to take on the outgoing costs and to keep things cheap.
“Really, it’s all smoke and mirrors.”
Page Six can confirm that three members — 60% of the charity’s staff — have been let go.
Only Executive Director James Holt, who’s been with the couple since they were working royals in Britain, and Vice-President of Philanthropy Shauna Nep will remain with the re-branded charity.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Markle said: “Currently, the same full team remain in place. This move does mean that some staff redundancies are inevitable, particularly with junior admin roles.”
Earlier this year, Page Six reported that the couple had cut ties with six personal employees as they focused on saving cash — and as their security bill is said to be around $2 million a year.
And new tax information reveals that money is flowing out of their charity.
Archewell recorded total expenses of $5.1 million, according to its latest 990 form, made public Friday.
Salaries for 2024 were listed at $913,000 — and expenses were up 54% year over year, soaring from $3.3 million. This may relate to the couple’s quasi royal tours of Nigeria and Colombia in 2024, as “other expenses” are recorded at $2.9 million; in 2023, that category totaled $1 million.
Meanwhile, donations and grants to the group dropped from $5.3 million in 2023 to $2.1 million in 2024.
Insiders are skeptical of how Archewell, which doled out $1.25 million in grants in 2024, can continue.
“If they’re shooting out grants then that’s a net loss and they’re not bringing in that much money,” said the source. The Sussexes last week announced they will produce a film adaptation of the book “The Wedding Date,” by Jasmine Guillory, for Netflix, with whom they retain a first-look arrangement after losing their exclusive deal.
They are producing the project for their Archewell Productions hub alongside Tracy Ryerson, Deadline reported.
However, their adaption of the hit book “Meet Me By the Lake” still has no director or cast, we’re told.
They’ve also signed on to produce a doc about Girl Scout cookies called “Cookie Queen” which will premiere at Sundance next month. But sources pointed out that they are simply putting their names on projects rather than developing their own.
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