Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce Australia trip
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will tour Australia next month on their first visit to the country in seven years.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will tour Australia next month on their first visit in seven years.
The couple headed Down Under on their first official overseas engagement as a married couple in 2018, months before they stepped back as working royals, and now they are to return to the country as private citizens, visiting Sydney and Melbourne to pursue their own charitable and commerical interests.
However, they are not expected to take their children, Prince Archie, six, or four-year-old Princess Lilibet because the youngsters will be in school.
Their spokesperson confirmed: “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.”
According to the Daily Telegraph, Harry is likely to focus on visiting the armed forces and veterans' communities, having previously spent a month at a barracks in Darwin in 2015, while Meghan is believed to be making 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.
The As Ever founder will then likely appear as a special guest at an upcoming Besties event, similar to one Gwyneth Paltrow participated in back in 2003, where she took part in a Q+A in front of 3,000 ticket holders.
The couple's last visit to Australia was part of a tour that also included Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand, and the couple later admitted it was one of their hardest moments as working royals.
During their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Meghan said: “Those tours are…I’m sure they have beautiful pictures and it looks vibrant and all of that is true.
“It’s also really exhausting and I was fried. And I think it just hit me so hard because we were making it look like everything was fine. I can understand why people were really surprised to see that there was pain there.”
And Harry implied his family were jealous of Meghan's ease with other people and it had a lasting impact on their relationship.
He said: “You know, my father, my brother, Kate and all the rest of the family, they were, they were really welcoming. But it really changed after the Australia tour. After our South Pacific tour...
“But it was also…it was also the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job and that brought back memories."
Asked if he felt the family were jealous of his wife, he added: “To see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family…. to just be able to connect with people…”
