The Prince and Princess of Wales are among the most popular royals in the country and this week, the future King faced a tricky situation when a young boy asked him a cheeky question about his personal finances.

Prince William was put on the spot while visiting Manchester when 11-year-old Amir Hassan asked him: “How much do you have in your bank account?” William laughed at the brave question before saying he “didn’t know” how much money he had. It comes as the BBC was blasted for opening last night’s Children In Need with a cameo from Kate Middleton.

The future Queen made an impassioned speech about the charity fundraising event, telling viewers “all about helping to support, champion and empower all children to be the very best they can be”. However, people watching at home felt Kate, who was wearing a £315 Lisou blouse to film the segment, wasn’t the right choice to launch the evening.

“I hope Kate Middleton is going to announce a 10 per cent cut in Royal funding from public taxes. Think how much that would raise for charity,” one BBC viewer fumed on Twitter (aka X) following the royal’s speech, with another adding: “What the hell is Kate doing opening Children in Need? So out of touch. Not a good start.”

Others agreed, with one unimpressed viewer blasting the BBC as they tweeted: “A billionaire opening the Children In Need show on BBC. Asking society for donations. Tone deaf, @bbc…” Another disappointed social media user raged: “@BBC So Kate Middleton who owns several homes just popped up on #ChildrenInNeed, last year it raised about £20m. Or £354m less than we gave the royals to t**t up Buckingham Palace. The hypocrisy.”

And, thanks to annual public reports, William’s staggering fortune can be revealed – and it has certainly had a major boost since the late Queen’s death. Upon his grandmother’s passing, not only did William and his wife Kate gain a host of impressive new titles, but he also inherited the vast Duchy of Cornwall empire – becoming a billionaire in the process.

The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate, estimated to be around £1billlion, which was established by Edward III in 1337 for his son, Prince Edward, and has been passed to the eldest surviving son of each monarch. The estate stretches for 52,449 hectares of land across 20 counties mostly in southwestern England – and is currently the responsibility of William, who also has the title Duke of Cornwall, to run.

Earlier this year, it was revealed William received a private income from the Duchy of Cornwall of nearly £6million in the last financial year. Usually, William would be entitled to £24million as his private income, but his finances have been complicated after he became heir to the throne halfway through the financial year.

It came as it was revealed the Duchy generated record profits of £24.048million in 2022-23 – up £1.02million from £23.024million the year before, a jump of about 4.5 per cent, the estate’s own accounts showed due to “additional one-off income”. The King, as the former Prince of Wales, was entitled to £11.275million of the surplus before his accession, while William, who spent about six months of the last financial year as the Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales, to £12.773 million, Kensington Palace said.

But the Palace said as a “one-off associated with the change in Dukes of Cornwall” the Duchy team asked to retain a proportion of the surplus for “working capital purposes” – the day-to-day running of the estate – this year. The Duchy kept £6.873m, leaving William with an income of £5.9 million. Meanwhile, Kensington Palace said that the past year had been a transitional one following the death of the late Queen and as such they would not be releasing a report this year – William’s first as the heir apparent.

However, even before inheriting the Duchy of Cornwall, William still had millions in the bank through several inheritance payments. According to The Times, the prince inherited £10million after the tragic death of his mother Princess Diana.

Meanwhile, another payment the prince received was after the death of the Queen Mother. William is believed to have been given millions after his late great-grandmother passed away in March 2002. On her part, Catherine’s personal net worth is estimated to be in the region of £10million.