Prince Harry & the Royal Foundation were ‘cleared’ of financial impropriety

Prince Harry visits Amsterdam

Last summer, I covered the completely boring and nitpicky controversy around some claims that the Royal Foundation misappropriated funds to Prince Harry’s Travalyst charity/organization. I went back and looked at my coverage, which you can see here. I’m not going to go through the whole thing again, the basic gist is that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Foundation was accused of doing some inappropriate financial deal where they “gave” money to Travalyst when Harry sussexited that bitch. I’ve always thought the larger issue was that Harry and Meghan got a closer look at the Royal Foundation’s dodgy finances and they wanted their projects out of there.

In any case, the claims of misappropriated funds were taken seriously because those salty people were salivating at the chance to “punish” Harry over anything. The British Charity Commission – a sort of watchdog group – conducted a year-long review of the specific issue and guess what? Per Omid Scobie, “the charities did NOT act outside charity law in transferring funds to Travalyst.” Harry’s rep issued a statement:

Republic, the group which raised red flags over the issue, also issued a statement:

Republic basically saying that they overreacted and called the media and the charity commission before doing their own due diligence. Their issue never made any sense anyway – The Royal Foundation is supposed to be an umbrella organization for several separate initiatives and charities. When the Sussexes split from the Royal Foundation, of course they were going to take their earmarked charitable funds with them, you know?

Prince Harry during the start of the new partnership between Booking.com, Ctrip, TripAdvisor and Visa

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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50 Responses to “Prince Harry & the Royal Foundation were ‘cleared’ of financial impropriety”

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  1. Elizabeth Regina says:

    The apology has to be as loud a the smear. Now we await the apology for the bullying claims.

  2. GuestWho says:

    I’ve always thought that one of the big bones of contention early on was how the Royal Foundation was using money from H&M projects to prop up W&K’s “work” and that Meghan probably called that out (which just made W incandescent).

    The Republic’s apology sort of reads to me as “please don’t sue us.”

    I hope they have a basis for suing the crap out of them – and do so. The apology never gets the same traction as the original, baseless, accusations. People have been using it as a cudgel for a year now.

    • Brielle says:

      And they ran to the media instead contacting Harry and the Royal foundation..they just don’t want to be sued but their false claims on Twitter are still up

  3. BayTampaBay says:

    “In any case, the claims of misappropriated funds were taken seriously because those salty people were salivating at the chance to “punish” Harry over anything.”

    This is true. However, all the anti-Sussex commentators on the anti-Sussex blogs are not going to let this go as they really believe that Meghan inappropriately used foundation funds for her own personal benefit and continues to do do.

    • Brielle says:

      Who cares’? They always believe the worst about Meghan even when she does nothing : in this case Harry and Travalyst were concerned not Meghan …and Harry said we have to stop relaying fake news

      • Ginger says:

        Exactly . Absolutely nothing will change their mind regarding Meghan. They need to believe she is awful because that is the only reason they can function in life.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        I for one care very much because the more the lies are told then repeated the more they are believed such as misappropriation of foundation funds, Meghan made Kate cry over tights, Meghan threw a cup of tea at someone, Meghan bullied her staff, Harry is low IQ, Charles threw the Sussexes out of a BH garden party…etc…etc…etc…

      • Brielle says:

        @Tampabay These women or ppl are super unhinged : they reported Meghan to CPS and gave her adress,they also thought that Archie was not a real baby,or that photo when Meghan was taking Archie to school,they said it was fake..that investigation of funds it was also their idea and it was false….these women are helpless : they hate Meghan to the core, not one sane explanation will convince them and they are desperate. They need Jesus or therapy but this is not good or healthy

      • Agreatreckoning says:

        @Brielle-These people reported Meghan to CPS about a baby they don’t even believe is real? That kind of crazy really hurts my brain.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @Agreatreckoning – Which is why I care a great deal about what is said about the Sussexes (or anyone for that matter) that is complete falsehoods.

        Someone may say that they do not like a dress Meghan wears and we can discuss it, get loud, get mad at each other, have a good debate and/or whatever but to call CPS on a mother of a child that the caller does not believe exist is just dangerous unhingement.

        Reading here today is the first I have heard of CPS being called on the Sussexes. Is there a reliable source for this CPS involvement or is it just Daily Fail tabloid fodder from their commentariat?

      • Agreatreckoning says:

        @BayTampaBay-Brielle mentioned the CPS thing. Maybe a comment from an anti-Sussex somewhere? If someone did that they seriously need help.

      • Brielle says:

        @ Agreatreckoning one poster in one of royal forum even said that she was bothered that Harry said he was in fear of losing Meghan!!! Like WTF?!!! They are just batshit crazy: they think they are in a mission to save Harry from Meghan

    • Joan says:

      What is their proof? I’m just curious.

      • Brielle says:

        None,nada,niente…they make up things and gullible ppl believe it or some RR even discuss with them(Angela Levin was with the moon bump crew and Palmer also) and after they write some of these theories on legit newspapers…that Lady whatever her name is,the ‘Jamaican aristo’ ,making up the craziest theories about Meghan and Murky Meg or whatever her name is, is making money profiting of slandering Meghan everyday( she bookmarked Finding Freedom and posted it,CRAZY…) I hope there is a special place in hell for these ppl…and all of these isn’t without consequences cause a woman traveled to the baby shower to stab her and she was yelling at her…and she was also at Windsor to show that she can easily access Frogmore when Archie was born

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      Sounds like they’re anti-comprehension along with being anti-Sussex. Are these the same people that believe in the moon bump theory?lolz I don’t think anyone will convince those kind of thinking people otherwise. The best we can hope for is that they don’t homeschool their children.

  4. bettyrose says:

    There’s gotta be something we can get these two on. C’mon people . . . ideas! You know Harry and Meghan are guilty of something!

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      They are guilty of standing up to bullies!!!!

    • Tessa says:

      So the bots bring on Meghan announcing a pregnancy at Eugenie’s wedding and applauding Bea for having the baby announcement. Oh and there’ s the ring that Meghan had remade, the same one that HARRY had remade to commemorate the birth of Archie. So absurd.

  5. Becks1 says:

    The fact that Republic apologized personally to Prince Harry tells me that Republic was told to do so, lol. Love it.

    I said in the original post about this that I love how Harry is bringing the lawyers now. And still bringing them!

    • Erni says:

      Sue them to oblivion!

    • Amy Bee says:

      Yeah they don’t want to be sued into oblivion.

    • Mac says:

      They deserve to be sued, but the optics of a royal suing an organization that seeks to do away with royalty are bad.

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        Mac, Harry isn’t a working royal, and, frankly, I’m not sure he’s even considered part of the family at this point. Because this involves their charitable organization, I think they might have to do something. They have Archewell going forward, but do they want this to haunt them? And let’s acknowledge that this is not going to go away. The fact the the allegations are still are social media–oh, and an apology–tells me they want rumors and innuendo going forward. Harry’s legal team need to do whatever is necessary to stop that from happening. And, if they didn’t want to be sued by a royal, then they should have knowingly done what they did.

  6. Rapunzel says:

    And what about the cookbook funds? I thought the real tea was W&K wanting those funds for their charities. And they got mad Meg insisted it be earmarked for the Hubb Kitchen only.

  7. candy says:

    What happened to Travalyst?

    • Amy Bee says:

      It issued a report on the impact of COViD on travel and tourism early this year. The report is on its website.

    • notasugarhere says:

      With all those big name (booking dot com, VISA, TripAdvisor) companies attached, it isn’t going to disappear. A year of lockdown and forbidden travel would slow down their start, but not stop it completely.

    • candy says:

      Oh ok. I just haven’t heard of Harry promoting it since the launch. Still plenty of traveling going on, airports are completely packed.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Which is a new thing, obviously, after a year of lockdown in many Western countries.

  8. notasugarhere says:

    Don’t remember this group saying anything when Charles (illegally?) transferred funds from The Prince’s Trust to the original royal foundation at the time of W&K’s wedding. They did a public push for donations as wedding gifts, couldn’t even get to a million. Charles topped it up with 250,000-300,000 from The Prince’s Trust to make it look less pathetic.

    • BayTampaBay says:

      @nota – Thanks for bringing that money transfer from The Prince’s Trust to our attention. I had completely forgotten all about that incident.

  9. Miss617 says:

    If the folks at Republic actually wanted a republic, they’d all resign and let competent people with morals lead the republican cause.

  10. Amy Bee says:

    The most hilarious thing about this case is that Republic took that information from internet trolls and Kate stans who wanted only Harry investigated not William and Kate. The whole thing blew up in their faces because Republic made the complaint against both foundations.

  11. Myra says:

    The smear campaign from the UK against this couple has been relentless. I remember the reporting on Archewell when it was being set up. I had never seen any reporters follow a trademark application so closely. They treat the Sussexes the way you expect them to treat politicians, except worse. They go way overboard with the Sussexes.

    • Brielle says:

      Overboard with the Sussex!! They said at the time,in France it was reported( and I know it originated from the tabloids),that Archewell was a name of a Dutch floral company and they might sue🤯😡🤬

  12. Chelsea says:

    The Republic did more than “raise flags” they straight accused Harry (and Meghan whose pics they used on their site) of impropriety and breaking laws on twitter, their site, and multiple news outlets and then kept retweeting it even though they didnt bother to reach out to the Royal Foundation, Travelyst, or the Sussexes before talking and filing a complaint. That complaint was then brought uo again by Camilla Tominey at the Telegraph in the run up to the Oprah interview; a very clear part of the smear campaign. This is why they lose it every time H&M announce a new partnership whether commercial or philanthropic. They tried so hard to make sure no one would ever work with them. Camilla even bragged about journalists ability to affect reputations. Womp womp.

    I know the Vaxlive and P&G intitiatives along with Meghan’s book hurt really bad. The narrative since then has turned to “why are they being so successful and rubbing it in our faces while exposing our smear campaign waaaaaa”. It’s so delicious. I hope they never get off their necks and sue both the Republic and the CEO so we csn find oit eho put thrm up to this. (Richard Palmer was very openly engaging with the CEO but i feel like this came from someone more powerful).

    • Brielle says:

      So Harry was the one concerned with Travalyst but they used Meghan photos? It’s really infuriating

  13. Snuffles says:

    I feel like most royal foundations are 50% grift and 50% half assed, poorly done “charity”.

  14. aquarius64 says:

    Apology = please don’t sue us for defamation.

  15. L4frimaire says:

    That apology was crafted to avoid getting sued. Those guys a POS.

  16. BlueToile says:

    Sue them, H&M. They certainly deserve it. They were just jumping on the Meghan-bashing bandwagon hoping to score points for who-knows-what-reason. I just read the Charity Commission’s statement and they did say they felt that MWX’s administrative costs (50%) were excessive and not well documented. I am going to give the charity a pass on this because the charity was set up, then had to change its name temporarily, and is now being shut back down. All this was due to H&M leaving royal service, the UK, etc. I think it must be pretty hard to focus in documenting stuff and overseeing a charity perfectly when one is suicidal/receiving death threats/losing security protection/trying to find safety. Plus all the changes in the charity structure likely necessitated more legal costs than normal in such a short time. I expect that they will do better in future.

  17. Sofia says:

    Good. And I agree that the apology definitely reads like a “please don’t sue us!!”.

  18. S808 says:

    I’d sue them into the ground if possible.