Prince Harry, Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding More Expensive Than William, Kate’s By $11M

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding last year has been dubbed as the most expensive nuptials within the royal family. But it is apparently also one of the most expensive weddings in the world.

According to Bridebook, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding cost $45.8 million. However, only $5.8 million actually went to the wedding. The remaining $40 million was used to pay for security.

When Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot in 2011, their wedding only cost $34 million. But only $8 million was used to pay for security around Westminster Abbey.

Hamish Shepard, the founder of Bridebook.com, said that the average cost of weddings has risen over 100 percent in the last decade. This is the reason why Prince Harry and Markle’s nuptials were more expensive than Prince William and Middleton's.

“Screens have been filled with the most eye-wateringly expensive royal and celebrity weddings of all time across social media, with the rise of Instagram and Pinterest replacing blogs and magazines in the last 10 years,” she said.

Prince Harry’s family was the one who covered most of the wedding expenses and Markle only paid for her wedding dress. However, the security cost was shouldered by the taxpayers.

At that time, a petition was made on Change.org urging Prince Harry and Markle to shoulder the cost of security for their wedding. However, 10,000 signatures were needed to push the petition forward but the post only received a little over 9,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Markle also made headlines this week after they were accused of disrespecting the Sussex name. An online petition from July 1 already exceeded the minimum number of signatures required by the council to debate the issue.

“We the undersigned petition Brighton & Hove Council to reject the usage of the titles ‘Duke of Sussex’ and ‘Duchess of Sussex’ by the individuals Henry [‘Harry’] Windsor and Rachel Meghan Markle as morally wrong and disrespectful to the county of East Sussex,” the petition read.

But royal expert Robert Jobson came to the royal couple’s defense by saying that the petition is unfair to them.