Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have tried to be involved in American politics by building a relationship with Joe Biden and Jill Biden over the years. That included cozying up to their daughter, Ashley Biden, by making charitable donations to her non-profit. Through their Archewell Foundation, the Sussexes made a $250,000 donation to Ashley’s Women’s Wellness (Spa)ce, a trauma center for women in the Philadelphia area. According to an Impact Report published in December 2024 that summarized where Archewell’s money was sent, the quarter-million dollars was donated in 2023. But what seemed to be a generous donation to one of the Biden family’s causes wound up being a major issue.
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A few months after the report was published, members of the National Legal and Policy Center claimed that Ashley’s Women’s Wellness (Spa)ce did not report the $250,000 received from Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Foundation. “The large contribution raised eyebrows because of the political implications of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s attempts to ingratiate themselves with President Biden and his family,” Paul Kamenar, a lawyer for the Policy Center, said in a letter to the IRS obtained by the Daily Mail in March 2025. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the couple denied that the contributions had anything to do with Harry and Meghan’s political views, per the New York Post — even though they had been fostering a relationship with the Biden family for quite some time.
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Valerie Biden Owens, Joe’s sister, has spoken publicly about the Democratic Party wanting the Duchess of Sussex to come aboard. In August 2023, Biden Owens went so far as to endorse Meghan as a possible future presidential candidate. The previous summer, however, news had trickled out that Joe had denied a special request from Meghan and Harry, and the status of their relationship was in question.
Did the Sussexes get snubbed by Joe Biden and Jill Biden?
When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tried to call in a favor with Joe Biden. According to a report from the Daily Mail, Harry and Meghan were in the United Kingdom for a few weeks after the queen’s death, but they were looking to head back overseas to California. The royal family held a special reception at Buckingham Palace after the queen died, and they invited global dignitaries, which included Joe and Jill Biden — as he was the president of the United States at the time. Unfortunately for Harry and Meghan, they didn’t make the invite list because the Sussexes had parted ways with the royals. That snub did not stop them from asking the Bidens for a favor.
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Harry and Meghan’s staff reportedly reached out to the Bidens to ask if they could hitch a ride back with them to the States aboard Air Force One. That request was denied, as the then-president’s administration did not want to offend the royals by helping out Harry and Meghan. “It would have caused such a commotion. It would have strained relations with the Palace and the new King,” an insider told the Daily Mail in July 2023, when the story was reported.
The denial likely surprised the Sussexes. When they were still part of the royal family, Jill Biden showed her support for Meghan and Harry by attending the 2016 Invictus Games. Both Joe and Jill attended the event the following year. But in 2022, after the Sussexes had left the royals, the Bidens decided to skip the Invictus Games. However, Joe was considerate enough to send Pete Buttigieg, who was the secretary of transportation, as his proxy.
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