According to the Globe, the upkeep of the queen’s palaces is sucking her finances dry, and “she could wind up in the poor house.” Despite “living rent-free in Buckingham Palace,” the castles require “a king’s ransom to run.”
Most of this article is spent running down the various homes the Queen lives in. There’s Buckingham Palace, which is “undergoing a ten-year renovation costing a bankrupting $47.7 million a year.” Then there’s the Scottish castle, Balmoral, which “costs $4 million a year in upkeep.”
Throw in Brexit causing a loss on Sandringham House in England and the never-profitable racing stables, and one could only conclude “the Queen is house poor.” Most of the renovations and costs listed in this story are directly funded by the British taxpayer, which the tabloid even brings up to say “the taxpayers will get fleeced” to recoup costs.
If the money comes from the taxpayer, then the Queen would not be held responsible for it. Plus, the royal family actually brings in more tourist dollars than it spends, otherwise, it wouldn’t still be in existence, as it is.
Whatever money the queen owes, she would (at least in a non-COVID-19 year), bring back in many times over simply by living at home. It feels weird to even have to say this but if the Queen of England owes the bank money, it’s safe to say she’s good for it.
Forbes put her fortune somewhere in between $500 million and $1.5 billion, were she to start selling the crown jewels and whatnot. Parliament would likely never allow the queen to ever go broke anyway as it would irreparably damage the country’s reputation.
The Globe loves publishing stories about how little cash the royals have. It claimed Prince Harry, weeks away from scoring a multi-million dollar production deal, couldn’t get a job in the United States. It claimed Meghan Markle was spending $54000 on haircuts.
In an even more bizarre story, it said Queen Elizabeth had ordered the assassination of Ghislaine Maxwell as a way of protecting Prince Andrew. Of course, not one of these stories was true, nor is this latest farce.