The basic agreement is that the royal family gets the grant in exchange for surrendering all profits from the Crown Estate – the family’s massive portfolio of properties – to the government. Every year, the reigning monarch is given an amount of money equivalent to 25 per cent of the Crown Estate’s profits.

The grant totalled US$107.1 million (£82.2 million) in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Sovereign Grant pays for property upkeep and utilities, the family’s travel, and royal employee payroll. But The Telegraph notes that the grant doesn’t cover costs of security and royal ceremonies – that money comes from a few other places.

The reigning monarch’s private income is called the Privy Purse

That money comes from the Duchy of Lancaster – a portfolio of land and other assets that’s been in the royal family for hundreds of years. It contains US$715 million (£548.6 million) worth of net assets (including 18,433 hectares of land) and is made up of residential, commercial and agricultural properties, the Wall Street Journal UK reported.

It brought in US$27 million (£20.7 million) in 2019, according to The Journal. According to the royal family website, this sum helps with costs not covered by the Sovereign Grant – namely, it’s used to pay “expenses incurred by other members of the royal family”.

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The Queen had plenty of other valuable assets that added to her net worth

The Queen also outright owned Balmoral and Sandringham Estates, an expansive art collection, and other valuable assets that had been passed down from earlier monarchs.

The unknown total value of the family’s property network makes it difficult to estimate any total net worth, although a royal finance expert did tell The Journal that the royal family members are “millionaires, not billionaires”.

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The Duchy of Cornwall – yet another suite of properties owned by the royal family – covered the expenses of Prince Charles and his heirs. That means Harry and Meghan, William and Kate, and their children were all covered by the Duchy of Cornwall, too. Charles paid them a combined US$6.5 million (£5 million) in 2019, according to The Journal, while the fund paid Charles US$28.1 million (£21.6 million). Its total value has been placed at around US$1.2 billion (£923.8 million).

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“We could easily compare them to any former presidents,” Meinzer said. “My mind keeps going to Barack and Michelle Obama and how [they] make money. The reason I compare the two is that they’re already friends with each other and I would put them on the same level in terms of fame.”