Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bank balance has taken a battering after the couple were unceremoniously axed from their £15.8 million Spotify podcast deal last year, and their five-year exclusive £80 million contract with Netflix looks set to expire next year with no plans of it being renewed.

The Duke, 39, also had to pay the £750,000 legal fees of a newspaper he lost a libel claim to last month, and is set to pay out more money again after losing his High Court challenge over UK security levels this week, which he is seeking to appeal.

And it looks like the the money pot isn’t getting replenished as an insider says Meghan’s recent shopping sprees and dining out as part of her Hollywood comeback plan is freaking out Prince Harry because he’s worried they’re going to run out of cash.

The source explains, “Now that their deal with Netflix is coming to an end they’re scrambling to bring in money because the expenses are piling up and they’re running out of cash. Meghan has got it in her head that wining and dining all sorts of Hollywood power players is the only way to do it. She insists it’s key they not look desperate, so she picks up the cheque every time.

“And she claims she’s also got to look the part, which is why she’s gone and bought a whole new designer wardrobe worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile she’s got Harry afraid to spend a cent, he’s got to get every dollar approved by her and she’s being extremely tight with the purse strings.”

It’s almost a year since mum-of-two Meghan, 42, signed with top Hollywood talent agency WME in preparation for what’s been dubbed a ‘Meghanaissance’. Sources claim Meghan could be readying her very own memoir and follow in Harry’s footsteps with a book after the release of his memoir Spare in January 2022.

Others suggest the growing popularity of legal drama Suits – in which Meghan starred as paralegal-turned-associate Rachel Zane for seven seasons between 2011 and 2017 – could tempt her to return to acting.

But the insider explains Harry is annoyed he has his outgoings checked with a fine tooth comb by Meghan, while she has the freedom to spend lavishly. They also say Meghan will happily earn money by more tell-all deals about their time in the royal household, but Harry is reluctant to because it would scupper any chance of a reconciliation.

“Harry’s so frustrated but when he complains of the double standard, her answer is that they could easily bring in £78.9 million more if they wanted to cash in on the many tell-all offers on the table. That answer shuts him down right away since he’s desperate to mend fences with his family and she knows it.”

They add, “Meghan’s argument is that she’s the one now tasked with trying to bring home the bacon some other way, and that means she needs to spend money to make money. She’s annoyed he would even question her, and he’s upset about being put on a budget, it’s a huge imbalance of power and the main source of their fights these days.”

When Harry and Meghan made the decision to step back from their roles as senior working royals in 2020, the couple were left with around £13million from Harry’s mum, the late Princess of Wales and the Queen Mother. Meghan is also said to have earned £50,000 per episode of Suits.

The couple built on those foundations with their media company, Archewell Productions, which makes various programmes for Netflix in an arrangement thought to be worth millions of dollars. This included the Harry & Meghan documentary series in which the couple talked about life in the Royal Family. After they signed the £15.8 million Spotify podcast deal in 2020, Harry published his memoir Spare via Penguin Random House, reportedly earning an advance of at least £18 million. Meghan also published a children’s book called The Bench in 2021.

But they’ve hit hard times since their Spotify podcast deal was axed, plus reports that their Netflix deal won’t be extended beyond 2025 and overheads from their Montecito mansion isn’t helping matters.

“Obviously it’s a very scary time for them at the moment financially because not only is their big deal with Netflix not moving forward the way they’d hoped it would, they actually didn’t clear nearly as much as everyone thought they were going to. Plus of course losing all that money on their Spotify deal. Back when they bought the house they were sitting pretty financially, and things were looking so promising, but there have been big changes and they’re now really scrambling to keep up with their massive overhead,” the insiders says.

“There are only so many things they can cut back on, and they’re not looking to downsize or make any major changes so it’s understandable that Meghan’s put them on a budget and wants them to be careful with their spending. The problem is that she seems to always have some reason or another why it’s fine for her to spend the big bucks. Dropping a thousand dollars on a fancy dinner out is chalked up to a business expense.”

But the insider adds although Meghan’s networking is not a cheap lifestyle, it could benefit them both in the future.

“To be fair she’s trying to make connections with the ultra-rich and that’s how they live and do business. No one bats an eye at spending 500 dollars on a bottle of wine for the table, so you can see why she’d be in the position where she feels obligated to spend that kind of money when she invites potential business partners out, but it’s still a hard pill for Harry to swallow.

“He’s being told that they need to tighten their belts, yet every luxury she wants to spend on seems to be justified as necessary for their brand. Anytime she gets her hair done it’s easily a thousand dollars or more, but apparently that’s crucial because her hair has to look just so. She’s also gotten very anxious of freeloading, so she’s stopped accepting any sort of freebies and that means spending a fortune every month on clothes.

“The elephant in the room of course is that Harry hardly ever gets anything new. He’ll occasionally buy a new shirt or something but mostly their budget gets blown on her. And it’s not that Harry’s all that interested in clothes or fancy spa treatments, that’s not what bothers him. It’s the double standard that upsets him.”