Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s latest quasi-royal trip is being questioned, after Page Six revealed the couple has “essentially shuttered” their Archewell Foundation and let go of nearly all their staffers.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent two days this week in Jordan on a humanitarian mission after the World Health Organization (WHO) invited them to the Middle East. They were pictured meeting young Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza for medial treatment.
Page Six understands the pair flew commercial — not by private jet — at the invitation of WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, but paid for the trip themselves after alerting Buckingham Palace officials.
Last September, Archewell announced a $500,000 donation to projects supporting injured children from Gaza and Ukraine.
This included $200,000 to WHO, $150,000 for Save the Children and $150,000 to the Centre of Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London.
However, the trip — made just days after ex Prince Andrew’s shocking arrest over suspicion of misconduct in public office — comes as a surprise given that the renegade royals have effectively dismantled their own charity.
“They don’t have a foundation [anymore], so what are they actually doing to help these people? They have no (more) money to give… that’s the elephant in the room,” one source said.
“They are just gracing people with their presence,” added another insider linked to the foundation.
In December, Archewell’s Executive Director James Holt, Harry and Markle’s longest-serving staffer, announced he was stepping down to move back to the UK full-time, leaving only his long-time counterpart, Archewell VP Shauna Nep, at the charity.
However, as Page Six revealed, she is not even a full-time employee but working on a “consultant” basis. The foundation also let go of three more employees.
Alongside this, the charity has been rebranded Archewell Philanthropies and Harry and Markle transferred their Archewell Foundation Parents Network initiative to another nonprofit organization, ParentsTogether.
Despite this, we’re told the Jordan visit effectively gave the Sussexes an opportunity to see where their funding had gone.
The trip looked a lot like an official royally sanctioned visit, and the couple received the kind of reception Harry’s estranged older brother, Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton; would usually get, although the nation’s King Abdullah II skipped out of meeting them.
Harry and Meghan did, however, end up seeing Princess Basma bint Talal, King Abdullah’s aunt, and her daughter Farah Daghistani.
Throughout the trip, Markle, 44, looked like she was re-enacting moves made by her mother-in-law, the late Princess Diana, as she was pictured smiling at the bedside of a 14-year-old burns victim called Maria at the Speciality Hospital in Amman. She had lost her family in an explosion in Gaza, while Harry, 41, looked pained as her blankets were removed to show her bandages.
The couple also visited a refugee camp and toured a youth centre run by Questscope, a social development organisation, and were pictured playing soccer.
Fashion-conscious Markle brought a case of chic linen pants and tops in muted tones that looked like they came from her mother-in-law’s wardrobe, or that of fellow humanitarian Angelina Jolie.
“You can be sure that Meghan studies those women so the comparisons will be made,” noted a source.
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