Victoria Ward
Updated ,first published
London: Their last, hugely successful tour of Australia proved a catalyst for their decision to step back from being working royals and move to the US.
Now, seven years on, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are to return to the country, this time as private citizens pursuing their own charitable and commercial interests rather than representatives of the UK.
Next month, they are expected to visit both Sydney and Melbourne, where they will “take part in a number of private, business, and philanthropic engagements”, their spokesman confirmed on Sunday (UK time).
The tour will likely coincide with King Charles and Queen Camilla’s planned state visit to the US, which will be under huge scrutiny in the wake of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest and US President Donald Trump’s ongoing war with Iran, as well as his increasing criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The Sussexes’ visit is said to have been in the planning for about a year. They will not take their children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, who will be at school.
Meghan is rumoured to have lined up an appearance on the Her Best Life podcast, which was initially launched and co-hosted by Jackie “O” Henderson and Gemma O’Neill through their Besties company.
She is also reportedly due to appear as a special guest at an upcoming Besties event, following in the footsteps of actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who took part in a Q&A with Henderson before about 3000 ticket holders in Sydney’s Darling Harbour in 2023.
Harry is likely to focus on Australia’s armed forces and veterans’ communities, having spent a month at an army barracks in Darwin in 2015.
In his memoir, Spare, he waxed lyrical about his time working on a farm in rural Queensland aged 19 in 2003, which helped him find inner peace during what were “some of the best” weeks of his life.
The couple last visited Australia in 2018, five months after their wedding, when Meghan was pregnant with Archie.
The couple were welcomed with open arms, greeted by huge crowds desperate for a glimpse of the glamorous young newlyweds who represented the next generation of monarchy.
Meghan baked homemade banana bread for drought-hit farmers in Dubbo, Harry scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and they both went barefoot on Bondi Beach.
Harry spoke of his joy at being able to announce their baby news in Australia, saying he could not think of a better place to tell the world.
But the gruelling, two-week tour, which took in the Invictus Games in Sydney, as well as visits to New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, took its toll.
Behind the scenes, tensions were brewing that would eventually change the course of their lives. Later, Harry would claim that the royal family’s attitude towards his wife “really changed” after that tour.
“It was the first time the family got to see how incredible [Meghan] was at the job,” he told Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
Asked if members of the royal family were jealous, Harry replied: “To see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family … to just be able to connect with people…”
He described his wife as “one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever wished for”.
Meanwhile, the duchess said that it was after the tour that she began to realise what their future would be like.
She allegedly remarked that she couldn’t believe she was not getting paid for her efforts.
The Sussexes’ spokesman said: “Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will visit Australia in mid-April to take part in a number of private, business, and philanthropic engagements. Further details will be shared in due course.”
The Telegraph, London
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