EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
EdTech Test - New Swing Client Tasking
COMMENT
I guarantee there are three words that Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex had never heard before he stepped foot inside his first Erewhon Market or ever gingerly opened his first gas bill: Cost-of-living.
Like ‘bin night’ or ‘drain unclogging’, Harry’s life PM – pre-Megxit – was low on the grinding mundanity of normal life, like paying his own way, and high on hunting weekends, House of Hohenzollern rellies and horsies.
However, now that the duke and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex are ‘free’ of having to report for royal duty and free from being on the receiving end of King Charles’ gilt-edged cheques, it’s a fair bet Harry’s learnt exactly what these three words mean.
Because these days, Harry and Meghan are doing plenty of living and boy is it costing, someone else at least.
Take earlier this week when the couple was photographed boarding a private jet along with a clutch of Hollywood stars, including Cameron Diaz, Benji Madden and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, to fly the 40 minutes from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas to see Katy Perry perform. (Just pause for a minute here and contemplate the wildness of a royal duke now spending his weekends with a Charlie’s Angels star and an noughties hit maker in the shadow of the Strip.)
Harry and Meghan, Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd and her oil-heir husband arriving at a Santa Barbara airport before boarding a G4 for the 40 minute flight to Las Vegas. Picture: Backgrid
Harry and Meghan, Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd and her oil-heir husband arriving at a Santa Barbara airport before boarding a G4 for the 40 minute flight to Las Vegas. Picture: Backgrid
The numbers associated with this decidedly luxe night out are enough to make any decent accountant quail.
Meghan’s outfit, not including jewellery, was valued at nearly $12,000, with her opting for a $10,696 Valentino mini dress and $1,112 Christian Louboutin heels, according to prices from those news hounds over at the Daily Mail.
Then, consider their mode of transport, winging their way there via a Gulfstream. While the plane in question is reportedly co-owned by Wolfe Herde and her husband, oil heir Michael Herd, renting a similar aircraft to make the same round trip would cost between $32,000 and$40,200, according to a quote from EvoJets.
So far, not counting whatever the going rate for teenage babysitters is in Montecito these days (a couple of bitcoins? Equity in OpenAI?), this one evening alone comes to a total value of at least $43,808,
Meghan’s outfit, not including jewellery, was valued at nearly $12,000, with a $10,696 Valentino mini dress and $1,112 Christian Louboutin heels. Picture: Mega Agency
Meghan’s outfit, not including jewellery, was valued at nearly $12,000, with a $10,696 Valentino mini dress and $1,112 Christian Louboutin heels. Picture: Mega Agency
We’re a long way from The Hollywood Arms, Harry’s go-to London watering hole where a glass of bubbly will set you back a pretty reasonable $13.80. (The Sussexes could have had 3,174 glasses of Hollywood Arms prosecco for the same total value of their Vegas evening. I know, the calibre of this journalism knows no bounds.)
Realistically, of course, Harry and Meghan would not have had to chip in for the flight and the duchess’ dress could have been a gift from the Italian fashion house. (Those pesky rules that governed gifts back in their bygone Palace days are a thing of the past.)
However, my point here is that socially, the Sussexes are now playing in a whole new league, raising the question, can or will they be able to financially keep up?
Sure, the Sussexes might have earned many tens of millions of dollars via their willingness to plumb the depths of their psyches for Netflix cameras and Harry’s ghostwriter, putting them comfortably in the top 0.1 per cent in the US.
But what they have earned, and their limited earning potential going forward, still puts them in the ‘poor cousin’ category when it comes to the circles in which they now move. Put simply, could Harry and Meghan really, and on their own, have been able to afford a $43,000 Saturday night?
