Most Expensive Royal Family Member Revealed, And It’s Not Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle gets a lot of criticism for the amount of money she has reportedly cost the royal family since she officially joined their ranks in 2018. However, according to a new expense report regarding the royal family’s travel budget, she isn’t the person who is costing most of the British taxpayers' money.

According to the report (via Express UK), the entire royal family’s travel expenses amounted to a total cost of £2.7 million last year, but nearly half that total, £1.3 million, belonged to Prince Charles. Overall, the cost of his and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall’s travel, actually rose from £1.01 million to £1.33 million in the last year.

Among their expenses were train trips, which cost £20,000 per trip, their royal tour of the Carribean and Cuba in February, which came to £417,000, and travel to West Africa, which totaled £216,000.

However, while his travel was expensive, it is also being defended because it came at the request of the Foreign Office.

“His overseas travel was at the behest of the Foreign Office who realize he is a terrific ambassador for Britain,” a palace aide told Express UK.

As the next King of England, a title he will inherit upon his mother’s death, it is also likely expected that Prince Charles may have some of the more expensive travel costs.

Markle isn’t entirely off the hook, however, because while her travel costs were lower, she and Prince Harry are coming under fire for the total cost to the taxpayer for the renovations they had done prior to moving into Frogmore Cottage. That figure, which was also recently released, showed that taxpayers paid £2.4 million for that renovation.