Update: On Tuesday afternoon, Archewell released a statement saying, “We have diligently investigated the situation and can confirm that The Archewell Foundation remains fully compliant and in good standing. Due payments were made promptly and in accordance with the IRS’s processes and procedures. Furthermore, all necessary paperwork had been filed by the Foundation without error or wrongdoing.”
Is Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s charity in hot water with the authorities?
Well, it certainly seems like it, based on a stern letter from the California Attorney General that mysteriously leaked to the tabloid Page Six.
In the letter, Archewell—the foundation founded by the couple after they quit working as royals, and whose motto is “Show Up. Do Good.”—was accused of being “delinquent” in paying its annual charity registration fees to the state. It’s also late in submitting its annual report for 2023.
As with almost all communication from any government organization, this “notice of delinquency” is that terrifying combination of inscrutable legalese and dire-seeming warnings.
“An organization that is listed as delinquent is not in good standing, and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds,” it says.
Translation? Until they pay their registration fee and file that annual report, Meghan and Harry’s charity can neither raise any money nor can they give any away to their various causes, which as recently as last week included “support” (we can only assume financial) for Giants of Africa, a Nigerian group that’s making sports more accessible for kids in Abuja.
According to Page Six, their “sources” initially told them that the foundation had filed for an extension. According to the tabloid, this story later changed, and it became a slightly “dog ate my homework” story about how the cheque to pay the fees was “lost in the mail,” and a new one was on its way to the Attorney General.
This second version of events was also reported by the BBC, who say that an Archewell spokesperson told them that “all the charity documents were filed on time,” and that “required cheque appears not to have been received,” but has now been re-sent.
The spokesperson, the BBC says, believes that the issue will now be “quickly resolved.” They also added that this has nothing to do with the foundation’s tax filings, which “had been submitted in full and paid on time.”
As for how serious this really is? In some ways, it’s a very mundane admin thing, and doesn’t suggest there’s anything more nefarious going on than, if the second version of the story is accurate, a postal system that needs to work on its delivery skills.
On the other hand, it’s serious enough that in order to get back into good standing, the foundation not only has to pay the outstanding fee but explain why they were “delinquent” in the first place.
More broadly, of course, there’s the reputational damage for the couple. When you’re asking people for money, it’s never a good look when even the slightest question mark is raised over how the charity is being run behind the scenes. See: the outstanding annual report, and the million directions you could speculate when it comes to why exactly they couldn’t file it on time like every other charity.
And when you’re Meghan and Harry, whose every move is scrutinized and seized upon to cast it in the most nefarious light, this may be one simple admin mistake—or misdirected envelope—that will haunt them.
