She is a woman who we remember little today but who counted in the lives of the two brothers: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the mother of the Queen of England Elizabeth II died twenty years ago, at 102 years, leaving a great void in the lives of his great-grandsons William and Harry. The two young men, aged 20 and 18 at the time, had lost their mother, Lady Diana, five years earlier and had been grieving.
But this woman, discreet and important, had not left them without leaving them anything: indeed, she had decided to bequeath to them two-thirds of his fortune, or about 14 million pounds, which they would share at their majority. Except that when making this beautiful gesture, the centenarian had made a surprising choice: give Harry more money than William !
A preference that could have marked a brake on the relationship of the two brothers, at the time very accomplices. William could, in fact, have taken the fly seeing that his little brother would receive more money than him! However, the old woman’s choice had been rather logical: she knew that when Charles ascended the throne, William would then become Prince of Wales in place of his father, inheriting a 53,000 m² propertya place that would finance his public and private activities, but also the charities for which he is responsible.
Wanting to make up for this small disadvantage on the younger side, she had therefore decided to give him more money, a choice that William never disputed. The two brothers therefore shared 14 million pounds when they come of agethen were able to inherit the money their mother left them when they died, i.e. approximately 11 million euros each. Suffice to say that they are far from being to be pitied financially!
Two brothers with distant trajectories
However, today, their lives are very distinct: future king, Prince William lived until now in London with his wife, Kate Middleton and their three adorable children (George, 9 years old, Charlotte, 7 years old and Louis, 4 years), and the whole family takes more and more place in the monarchy. All five will however move soon, to be more in the countryside and close to Elizabeth II.
Prince Harry, meanwhile, left the royal family with a bang at the end of 2019 (and fell out with his brother) to go live with his wife, American actress Meghan Markle, in Canada, then in the United States, in California. There, they expanded their family, already made up of little Archie (3 years old), little Lilibet (1 year old), presented recently to the Queen.