One of the biggest royal scandals of the year has arrived just before Christmas, you guys. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are auctioning themselves off for charity. Or, as the Daily Mail puts it, they’re “auctioning access to themselves” and making people “pay to have dinner with – or access to – a working member of the Royal Family!” What is this crazy pay-to-play scheme? Does it involve King Charles handing out knighthoods in exchange for Fortnum bags full of cash? No. The Sussexes are raising money for their Archewell Foundation, and they’ve auctioned off a dinner.
Prince Harry and Meghan have quietly auctioned access to themselves to the highest bidder as a way of raising money, it can be revealed. It’s said tickets to attend a dinner with the Sussexes go for around $100,000 (£75,000) a plate, as they use the company CharityBuzz to raise funds for their charity Archewell. Up to now the charity has relied on anonymous wealthy donors, which has allowed them to make grants to their selected good causes.
Last night, a spokesman for Archewell confirmed: ‘We have partnered with numerous fundraising partners over the years and CharityBuzz has been one of them.’
A source explained that Archewell had used the company to support a fundraising dinner on World Mental Health Day. CharityBuzz has raised $650 million (£485million) for charity since opening 20 years ago and has run charity events with George Clooney, Beyonce and Sir Paul McCartney.
Paying to have dinner with – or access to – a working member of the Royal Family is seen as a no-no and one of Fergie’s many solecisms was to offer access to the then prince Andrew for cash. However, the Sussexes haven’t been working royals since Megxit.
The access to Harry and Meghan appears not to have been advertised on the company website, so may have been offered privately to ‘high rollers’ who have previously paid to rub shoulders with celebrities. A source said of their association with CharityBuzz: ‘People will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have dinner with them.’
Current offers include having dinner with Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk for $10,000 (£7,500) and platinum tickets to attend the Grammy awards for $50,000 (£37,000).
Meanwhile, sources reveal change is afoot at the Archewell Foundation, with talk of staff ‘restructuring’. The spokesman commented: ‘Yes, we are making some Archewell changes, and we’ll be sharing exciting developments regarding how we will deliver our philanthropic work moving forward, when we choose to. We look forward to communicating more in due course.’
This story came out just hours before the Sussexes announced that they were renaming their foundation as Archewell Philanthropies. 2025 seemed to be a year of change for Harry and Meghan, and I don’t doubt that they’re restructuring and likely thinking about new approaches for their philanthropic efforts, especially after the Sentebale mess. It’s worth noting that they’ve never hosted a fundraiser for Archewell, and I would assume that most of the foundation’s cash reserves have come from private donors and themselves. Anyway, this is the biggest non-story. Tons of celebrities auction themselves off for charity, it’s one of the easiest ways to fundraise if you have any kind of profile. Harry’s father does it too, only Charles has a long history of handing out honors in exchange for charitable donations.
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