A “wildly unhappy” Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have burned through most of his multimillion-dollar inheritances from his late mother and grandmother, according to a report.

Dan Wakeford, a royal expert and former editor of People, claims the twin bequests to the 41-year-old royal from his mother, Princess Diana, and the Queen Mother are running dry.

Harry and his estranged brother Prince William were left most of Diana’s £13 million ($24.5 million) estate on her death in 1997. The brothers are each believed to have inherited their share when they turned 30.

The prince was also the benefactor of some of the estate of the Queen Mother. Paid to him when he turned 40 in September 2024, it is believed to have been worth about £8 million (A$15.1 million).

Wakeford said he interviewed five people within the Sussexes’ inner circle for a column that alleges they have reportedly been forced to “cut back”. He said the financial shortfall was putting pressure on the California-based duke and duchess to maintain their lifestyle – including recently cutting their staff back from 16 to just five.

“Meghan has a sense of how careful they need to be …. Harry – raised in a world where everything was provided – reportedly lacks basic awareness of what things cost,” Wakeford wrote in his Celebrity Intelligence newsletter.

His claims follow the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent four-day trip to Australia, in which they combined “traditional” royal duties with commercial engagements.

They included a keynote speech given by Harry in Melbourne and Meghan’s much-hyped girl’s weekend retreat in Sydney. Meghan also filmed a surprise guest spot on the Ten Network’s MasterChef.

The reception was mixed, with plenty of praise but also accusations of a cash grab. Royal author Tom Bower was among the unimpressed.

“They are keen to resurrect their reputations as royals, while pretending they’re not royal and cashing in completely on their royal status,” he said.

“I just find them pretty unconvincing.

“For a couple who said they had to leave Britain because they needed their privacy, who now do everything to expose not only themselves but their children to cash in on it all, it’s pretty grotesque.”

Bower said the couple – who once promised Queen Elizabeth II they would not exploit their royal status – had since done exactly that.

“I think [Buckingham Palace is] pretty disgusted by it but they’re going to remain quiet,” he said.

“They’re cashing in on their titles, the very thing they promised they wouldn’t do, and no one has much respect for them.”

There were further reports in the British media this week of the palace’s explicit disapproval. Woman and Home royal editor Emily Andrews told The Express that a Buckingham Palace source had described Harry and Meghan’s Australian trip as “pretty outrageous behaviour” and “royal-tour choreography.”

She said the source said the visit was shocking “in a realm where the King is head of state, to drum up all this publicity for their commercial endeavours”.

“The whole point about being a working royal is that they do it for others and for public service, not their bank balance,” Andrews quoted the source as telling her.

Meghan in her lifestyle streaming show. Photo: Netflix

But if Wakeford is right, Harry and Meghan may have serious reasons for their money-making enterprises.

He alleges that some of the Sussexes’ major deals – including with Netflix and Spotify – were worth far less than what has been publicised.

Wakeford says the Netflix deal, which was publicly hailed as a $138 million project, was instead worth $83 million. Spotify, he said, paid them $6.9 million, instead of the reported $27.7 million.

Harry’s tell-all biography, Spare, meanwhile, was reportedly accompanied by a $27 million advance. It remains Britain’s fastest-selling nonfiction book.

But balanced against all that are astonishing living costs. Wakeford says the couple have multiple mortgages on their $19.4 million California mansion and an annual security bill of about $4.1 million.

Harry and Meghan, with children Archie and Lilibet, in the grounds of their California home.

Then there are the prince’s multiple, lengthy legal battles against the British media. Most have either been won or settled.

But in one ongoing case against the Daily Mail, Harry and his co-claimants face a bill of as much as $71 million in costs, according to news.com.au.

“The inheritance has largely been spent on the house and the legal trials,” Wakeford said he was told by an insider, leaving Duke and Duchess of Sussex “wildly unhappy”.

An additional well-placed source then offered a grim timeline for the Sussexes’ future:

“Five years, roughly. That’s the window before their lifestyle looks a lot different,” they told Wakeford.

-with AAP