Prince Harry has got not one but two new jobs, his first since he and wife Meghan Markle stepped down from the British royal family. Harry has been appointed Chief Impact Officer at Silicon Valley start-up BetterUp, which provides coaching, advice and support for both businesses and organisations. CEO Alexi Robichaux described his job as "a meaningful and meaty role". “I intend to help create impact in people’s lives,” Prince Harry told the Wall Street Journal. “Proactive coaching provides endless possibilities for personal development, increased awareness, and an all-round better life.” He is expected to be involved with product strategy and charitable contributions as well as promoting the benefits of good mental health in the workplace. It's not been revealed how much Harry will be paid or whether he will be given shares in BetterUp. The company has just completed a $125 million (£90.7m) funding round, and it's currently valued at $1.73 billion (£1.26bn). Click or scroll on to find out about his second new role...

Harry is also joining a new Commission on Information Disorder founded by the nonprofit organisation the Aspen Institute. This aims to counter the spread of false information in the digital world. The Commission is funded by Craig Newmark, the billionaire owner of the Craigslist listings website. Other people on the Commission include media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's daughter-in-law Kathryn and former Republican congressman Will Hurd. In a statement, Prince Harry said: "The experience of today’s digital world has us inundated with an avalanche of misinformation, affecting our ability as individuals as well as societies to think clearly and truly understand the world we live in." It's reported that Harry will have a part-time role on the Commission. Click or scroll on to discover how much money Prince Harry inherited from his late mother Diana, and the other ways he and Meghan are set to make their money now...

A large part of Prince Harry's current wealth, and Prince William's too, stems from the £21 million ($34m) trust their late mother Princess Diana left to the beneficiaries of her will. After inheritance tax the sum dropped to £13 million ($21m), which is equivalent to £24 million ($33m) today, and the brothers each received half of the trust when they turned 30. However, the princes have had access to the trust’s profits, which is thought to be around £330,000 ($456k) per year, since they were 21. It is this money that Harry claims allowed he and Meghan to seek financial independence in 2020, although Harry is not the only wealthy partner in this marriage. Click or scroll on to find out about Meghan's money-making...

By the time Meghan Markle joined the royal fold she had already garnered her own fortune. Before she met Prince Harry, and became the Duchess of Sussex in 2018, Markle had built up a net worth of around $5 million (£3.6m), generated by her $50,000 (£36.5k)-an-episode role on legal drama Suits, as well as sponsorship deals, and not forgetting the freelance calligraphy that she did between acting jobs. Markle could certainly pay her own way before entering the royal household. And now they are married, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have started to carve out new careers for themselves. Click or scroll on to find out else what they're making money from now...

Prince Harry and Meghan have now set up their base in California, and over the last year have announced several money-making projects, as well as the launch of their new charity Archewell Foundation. The pair are making most waves in media. In September 2020 news broke that the pair had signed a deal with Netflix to produce docuseries and series for the platform for a reported $100 million (£72m) via their company Archewell Productions. This was followed by a separate deal with Spotify in December for a reported $25 million (£18m), and the couple's newly-formed "audio-first" production company Archewell Audio was announced at the same time. Harry and Meghan's first podcast in the series came out that same month and featured singer Elton John and the voice of their 19-month-old son Archie, the first time he has been heard in public. Click or scroll on to find out whether they got paid for their Oprah interview...

The couple weren't paid for their recent TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they revealed they'd used Harry's inheritance from Diana to fund their move to the US, and their new careers.

But it's not unheard of for royals to work in the real world. In fact, for royals who are not in direct line to inherit the throne, or don't have a throne to inherit, it’s not all public appearances, state visits and glitz and glamour. From airline pilots to bankers to authors, click or scroll through some other members of royal families who work for a living.

Although Princess Märtha Louise of Norway retains her place in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne, she has worked with more freedom from her role as a princess since 2002. She’s a certified physiotherapist, but has never practiced her profession, and instead used her fascination with traditional Norwegian folklore to establish a commercial entertainment business.

And it doesn’t stop there. In 2004, her first book, a children’s book entitled Why Kings and Queens Don’t Wear Crowns, was published. The royal also claims she can communicate with animals and angels and started her own alternative therapy centre Astarte Education, which has been subjected to intense scrutiny over the years. 

Prince Nikolai of Denmark – pictured here with his parents – is being heralded as the latest regal heartthrob. And the young royal is pursuing a career as a fashion model.

Prince Nikolai has walked the catwalk for the likes of Dior Homme (pictured). Unlike some of his peers, Nikolai has no choice but to work, as it has been decided that the seventh in line to the Danish throne will not receive any money from his grandmother Queen Margrethe II.

Following in the footsteps of her father Prince Andrew the Duke of York, Princess Beatrice has set herself up as a business matchmaker, and bagged her first-high profile client in the process, Afiniti – a company which provides software for call centres.

The Princess, who got married in 2020 in a small socially-distanced ceremony, is said to have held down multiple roles over the years, including working at Sandbridge Capital, a retail-focused venture capital firm in New York and as a production analyst at Sony Pictures.

Princess Beatrice’s younger sister Eugenie has had a few jobs over the years. The princess worked for online auction house Paddle8 in New York from 2013 until 2015.

After she was headhunted while working at Paddle8, Eugenie joined the ranks of Mayfair-based gallery Hauser & Wirth as an associate director in the summer of 2015. Her hard work and determination hasn’t gone unnoticed as she was promoted to director in 2017, and it is said to be “well deserved”. Princess Eugenie gave birth to her first child, a son called August, in February.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie's mother Sarah Ferguson stopped being a Royal Highness after her divorce from Prince Andrew in 1996, following their split four years earlier, but kept her Duchess of York title. She later told magazine Harper's Bazaar in 2007 that she wasn't keen on the divorce, but they went ahead because of her desire to work in the real world: "Andrew and I decided to make to make the divorce official so I could go off and get a job". She reportedly received £3 million ($4.9m) as part of their divorce settlement, according to The Sunday Telegraph, and released an autobiography called My Story in 1997. She also took up the role as an ambassador for Weight Watchers (now called WW).

Since entering the world of work Sarah, Duchess of York has starred in TV series including The Duchess on the Estate (2009) and a mini-series on the Oprah Winfrey Network called Finding Sarah (2011). She has also made a foray into children's literature with her Budgie the Little Helicopter books and Little Red series, and in April 2020 launched a YouTube channel Storytime with Fergie and Friends, which features Sarah and other authors reading stories to children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her first novel Her Heart for a Compass is due to be published by famous British romantic publisher Mills & Boon in August this year.

This isn’t the most straightforward of royal fairy tales we’re afraid. Recently declared king of Rwanda, Emmanuel Bushayija and his fellow royals were exiled from Rwanda in the 1960s when the country became a republic following a referendum.

His appointment as king came after the death of his uncle, King Kigeli V, in 2016. Mr Bushayija has lived in exile in the UK since 2000 and runs his own security firm in Manchester, but also once worked for Pepsi Cola in Uganda.

Daughter to Anne, the UK’s Princess Royal, you may recognise Zara from the British equestrian team as she competed at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and London 2012.

She followed in both her parents’ footsteps and became an accomplished rider, and has competed across countless competitions and events over the years. But her love for the world of horses doesn’t stop there, as Zara also designs her own range of equestrian clothing for Musto Outdoor Clothing.

Like his sister Zara, Peter is no stranger to having a “day job”, and tried his hand working at a few different companies. After graduating from college, he worked for Jaguar as corporate hospitality manager and then for WilliamsF1 racing as sponsorship accounts manager.

In 2005, he became a manager at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh, but Peter has held the position of managing director at sports management company SEL UK since 2012. He recently came under fire for appearing in an advert for Jersey milk on Chinese TV, playing on his royal connections. This has led commentators to suggest that Harry and Meghan might also pursue similar commercial opportunities now they have left 'The Firm'.

Up until 2012, the Queen's nephew and Princess Margaret's son David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, ran his own high-end furniture and interior design business under the brand name Linley before selling it to the heir of a yachting family.

In 2015, Viscount Linley was promoted to Chairman of auction house Christie’s in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India, following on from his former role of Chairman of Christie’s UK.

King Willem-Alexander has revealed he held down a part-time job as a ‘guest pilot’ for more than two decades. The Dutch king stepped down from his position after 21 years on KLM’s fleet of Fokker 70 planes.

The monarch to 17 million Dutch citizens describes flying as a “hobby” that allows him to leave his royal duties on the tarmac as he glides through the skies. The king will now retrain to fly Boeing 737s as the Fokkers will be phased out of service.

His Imperial Highness Prince Nazım Ziyaeddin Nazım Osmanoğlu, Imperial Prince of the Ottoman Empire – or Naz Osmanoglu as he prefers to be known – was actually born and raised in the UK, where he has remained. He's a member of the House of Osman, which no longer rules in Turkey, so Naz has pursued a career as a stand-up comedian.

The 34-year-old is happy to laugh about his royal roots, giving one of his solo shows the tongue-in-cheek title of Ottoman Without An Empire. The joker even made a video about Prince Harry's 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.

Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece is married to Prince Pavlos of Greece but, as the Greek royal family was abolished in 1973, they may have royal titles but they need to work. Before marrying, Marie-Chantal was an heiress to her American investor father Robert Miller's duty-free empire and was a fashion designer who had worked with Andy Warhol.

Princess Marie-Chantal (pictured here with her daughter, Princess Maria-Olympia and actress Emma Watson at a fashion show) now runs her own children's clothing line, called Marie-Chantal.

The nephew of King Philippe of Belgium effectively abdicated when he married Italian journalist Elisabetta Maria Rosboch Von Wolkenstein in 2014. By not requesting official permission from his uncle it was thought to be a means to streamline the royal family, although retrospective permission was given in 2015. However, Prince Amedeo does work...

After completing a degree in Management at the London School of Economics, he worked for Deloitte in New York City. Prince Amedeo later went on to study for an MBA at the Columbia Business School and now works for private bank Gutzwiller in Basel, Switzerland.

Prince Amedeo's younger brother, Prince Joachim, has gone down a slightly different route to his sibling. As has been the tradition for many royals he began a military career. After studying at Bocconi University in Milan and the Nautical School in Brugge, the 29-year-old worked as a naval officer.

Last year, however, it was reported that he was undertaking an internship in Spain, but the royal got in trouble for travelling to the country from Belgium and not keeping to the 14-day quarantine rules. Prince Joachim was fined €10,400 ($12.6k/£9.3k). Tenth in line to the throne, it is unlikely this young royal will ever be king.

Prince William may be a full-time royal and second in line to be King, but the Duke of Cambridge used to have a day job. Instead of resting on his royal name, he became the first royal in the line of succession ever to hold a civilian contract when he trained to be an army officer.

With years of military experience under his belt, Prince William gained a qualification to be pilot-in-command of a Sea King helicopter, but his active service as an RAF search and rescue pilot ended in September 2013. His most recent role was helicopter pilot in the East Anglian Air Ambulance, but he has since stepped down from his position to focus on his royal duties full-time. 

 

Now discover the world's richest royal families

Or find out about the British royal family's surprisingly frugal habits