Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK move secretly helped by hedge fund billionaire — with emotional connection to prince
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have enlisted British hedge fund billionaire Ian Wace — who shares an emotional bond with the duke — in their move back to the United Kingdom.
Wace is helping finance the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s UK move, two sources exclusively told Page Six. He is said to be worth a whopping $1.2 billion.
Page Six has reached out to reps for Markle and Harry, and a rep for Wace declined to comment.
The couple’s guardian angel is the founding partner, chief executive officer and chief risk officer of Marshall Wace LLP — one of the largest hedge fund firms in the world, established in 1997.
For years, Harry, 41, and Markle, 45, have had a very close relationship with the 63-year-old financier.
The couple took their children — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — to Wace’s private Scottish island, called Tanera Mòr, in July, per the Daily Mail. Additionally, Markle posted an Instagram photo of what appeared to be the Scottish Highlands in early August.
The outlet reported Harry also visited the remote island in 2017 when the hedge fund tycoon purchased the property for $2.3 million.
The 800-acre island has been completely transformed since, with Wace spending $135 million to restore it, plant trees, lay roads and more.
Like Harry, Wace is no stranger to heartbreak.
In 1994, his first wife, Joanna, and their two young children — Guy, 4, and Alicia, 11 months — died in a car crash in Hampshire, England. Wace was riding in the passenger seat of the Range Rover driven by his 34-year-old wife.
Harry knows tragedy well, of course, as his mother, Princess Diana, was involved in a fatal car accident in 1997.
Additionally, Markle shares an extremely close bond with Wace’s ex-wife, former model Saffron Aldridge. Though the couple split in 2023 and are now divorced, they remain on friendly terms.
In 2019, the foursome had a double date night at the 2019 Cirque du Soleil performance at Royal Albert, with The Sun reporting Aldridge helped Markle learn the ropes of British aristocracy and even gave fashion advice after marrying Harry.
The former Ralph Lauren model is well-connected even outside the royal court, as her half-sister is Victoria’s Secret Angel Lily Aldridge, who is married to Kings of Leon rocker Caleb Followill.
The Wace-royal family bond is so strong that the father of Saffron’s eldest son, Milo, is Simon Astaire, who coincidentally is also the spokesman for Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
Saffron, 57, is known for her charity work with a focus on children’s foundations — a passion also shared by Markle and Harry.
The socialite attended an event with Kate Middleton and Prince William — which marked their first outing as a married couple — in 2011.
On Aug. 19, Page Six confirmed Harry and Markle are moving back to the UK with their children six years after infamously quitting their royal duties and moving to California, a move dubbed Megxit.
“The palace was made aware of the move,” a source confirmed to us at the time.
Although the source noted that Harry’s father, King Charles III, was informed just a few days prior, they insisted that the cancer-stricken monarch “is the reason they are moving back.”
The insider also said that Charles, 77, is looking forward to spending time with the family of four.
The children are set to start school in the UK very soon, and Harry and Meghan, who will not be resuming their royal duties, will “continue with their business enterprises” while living in a “non-royal residence.”
Six days after news of their move broke, the couple and their kids traveled from Los Angeles to Birmingham, England, on a private jet that cost them $120,000.
Page Six reported the Sussexes have been looking for homes in the Cotswolds, which is close to Charles and Queen Camilla’s Highgrove House.
They have yet to make a public appearance.
