Prince Harry’s much-publicised £1.1million contribution to BBC Children in Need last year was not drawn from his personal wealth, despite being characterised as such at the time.
The substantial sum actually originated from the Glen Beg Foundation, a charitable entity holding funds inherited from his late mother, Princess Diana.
When the donation was announced, sources indicated the money came “from his own money rather than his Archewell organisation.”
However, the funds were neither derived from the Duke’s commercial partnerships nor from proceeds of his memoir, Spare. Instead, every penny traced back to charitable assets established through Diana’s philanthropic work.
The Glen Beg Foundation was created in 1999, two years following Diana’s death, using money from the Princess of Wales Charities Trust.
Diana had established this trust in 1981, the same year she married Prince Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Throughout her life, the trust accumulated generous contributions from companies and organisations she visited or represented in her official capacity.
Upon her passing, the trust’s assets were divided equally between her two sons.
Both foundations took their names from hills on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, with William’s charity named The Broad Cairn Foundation.
The Duke of Sussex returned to Nottingham in 2025, a city holding particular significance as the location of his first public engagement with Meghan Markle following their engagement announcement in December 2017.
During this visit, he toured the Community Recording Studio in St Ann’s, meeting representatives from social action groups and local charitable organisations.
Harry declared the funding would assist “changemakers in the city continue their mission to create safe spaces… and offer hope and belonging to young people who need it most.”
The donation was earmarked specifically for initiatives addressing violence affecting young people, though its considerable size prompted surprise on both sides of the Atlantic.
Charity Commission filings verify that £1.1million was transferred from the Glen Beg Foundation to Children in Need on 10 October last year, approximately one month after Harry publicly announced the gift.
The current balance remaining in the foundation is unclear.
At its inception, the charity’s trustees included Hugh van Cutsem, a close friend of King Charles who passed away in 2013, alongside Harry’s late godfather Gerald Ward, an Old Etonian farmer.
Baroness Fiona Shackleton of Belgravia, who served as Charles’s solicitor, held the distinction of being the sole trustee appointed to both brothers’ charitable foundations.
