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  • Royal weddings like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's here in Windsor are expensive affairs.

  • The last royal wedding, for Prince William and Kate Middleton,

  • cost an estimated $34 million dollars.

  • And that's low compared to the price tag for Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding,

  • which is predicted to have totaled a hefty $150 million in today's dollars.

  • You've got to be pretty rich to foot bills this big - so just how rich is the royal family?

  • The personal finances of Britain's royal family are kept very private,

  • but let's try to break it down.

  • What we do know is that Queen Elizabeth II is the wealthiest member of the royal family.

  • Forbes estimates the queen's personal net worth is around $530 million.

  • That's a lot - but for context, not enough to put her on the list of the world's richest people.

  • So where does the queen's money come from?

  • It's a little complicated, but it can all be traced back to three main sources:

  • her personal wealth and income, the Sovereign Grant and the Privy Purse.

  • Okay, let's start with personal wealth and income.

  • This includes assets from the queen's investment portfolio and private estates.

  • The queen's personal investment portfolio includes things like her private jewelry and art.

  • Then there's her property - like the Balmoral Estate in Scotland

  • and the Sandringham Estate in the English countryside.

  • The queen inherited both from her father

  • and their combined value is estimated to be around $175 million.

  • When it comes to her personal income, the queen also has a lucrative hobby: horse racing.

  • It's reported she's raked in $9 million over the past three decades from the sport.

  • Okay, now let's look at the second source of the queen's money: the Sovereign Grant.

  • This is a lump sum the queen receives from the government to pay for official duties,

  • things like receptions, travel and maintenance of the royal palaces.

  • The Sovereign Grant for 2017 and 2018 is around $100 million.

  • The Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth's husband, receives an additional annual allowance

  • from parliament of nearly $500,000 to carry out his public duties.

  • So where does the money in the Sovereign Grant come from?

  • The short answer is U.K. taxpayers.

  • In 2016 and 2017, the queen collected around 90 cents per person in the country.

  • That's the cost of one single first-class stamp.

  • Okay, let's go back to the queen's third source of income: the Privy Purse.

  • This is a fancy way of referring to the money generated by

  • a very large plot of land, property and assets called the Duchy of Lancaster.

  • The Duchy's main purpose is to provide income for the Duke of Lancaster.

  • That's a title that has represented the reigning sovereign since 1399.

  • And yes, the queen is sometimes referred to as the "Duke" of Lancaster.

  • It's estimated the value of the Duchy of Lancaster is around $700 million.

  • The queen receives an annual income of around $25 million from that.

  • The queen's son, Charles Prince of Wales,

  • receives a similar income from the Duchy of Cornwall.

  • That's because he's heir to the crown.

  • His estimated net worth is around $400 million.

  • In total, the queen's immediate family is valued at more than $1 billion.

  • Wealth estimates for the younger generation of royals are around

  • $30 million for Prince William,

  • $7 million for the Duchess of Cambridge

  • and $25 million for Prince Harry.

  • This all adds up to a lot of money.

  • But sometimes people think the royal family is worth even more.

  • Well it turns out a lot of the most valuable assets aren't actually owned by the royal family.

  • They're a part of two separate funds.

  • One is an organization called the Crown Estate, valued at a whopping $17 billion.

  • It's a real estate business that includes major chunks of property around the United Kingdom.

  • The Crown Estate is managed by an independent board of directors

  • and its profits go to the U.K. Treasury.

  • The second fund is the Royal Collection Trust.

  • This includes a lot of the things you would typically associate with Britain's royal family.

  • We're talking palaces, famous art collections and of course, the crown jewels.

  • The total value of the Royal Collection is estimated to be around $15 billion.

  • But since it's part of a trust that's passed down from generation to generation,

  • the queen doesn't personally own these valuable assets.

  • There's no question the royal family is rich.

  • But simply measuring up their assets might not actually give us a full picture of their wealth.

  • It's estimated the monarchy's brand brings in more than

  • $1 billion to the U.K. economy every year.

  • Now that's a number fit for a queen.

  • Hey guys, it's Elizabeth. Thanks so much for watching!

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  • Cheerio!

Royal weddings like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's here in Windsor are expensive affairs.

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