Perhaps because Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are still looking for a purpose as global celebrities, they have announced they are embarking on what’s being dubbed “a quasi-royal tour” of Australia in mid-April, an apparent attempt to remind the world of their greatest success as working members of the British royal family.
When newlyweds Meghan and Harry visited Australia in October 2018, they were still immensely popular in the U.K. and Australia, a constitutional monarchy that regards Britain’s royal family as its own. With news breaking that Meghan was pregnant with their son Archie, she and Harry were widely viewed as the fresh new faces of an archaic institution. Everywhere they went in the Commonwealth nation, they were greeted by rapturous crowds and photographed radiating happiness and star power.
But six years later, Meghan and Harry no longer work for the royal family, their popularity in the U.K. and Australia has plummeted and multiple reports have since emerged that, behind-the-scenes, their 2018 Australia tour was “a disaster,” according to Natalie Oliveri, the royal reporter for Australia’s nine.com.au and 9honey. Notably, Meghan privately complained that she didn’t want to be there and allegedly said she “hated every second of it.”
Prince Harry, Duke of SussexÊandÊMeghan, Duchess of Sussex watching Netherlands and United States of America competes in the Wheelchair Basketball Gold metal macth during day eight of the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at on October 27, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Meghan also was famously quoted as saying, “I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this,” referring to the many meet and greets that she and Prince Harry did with regular Australians during the tour. Also troubling, allegations of workplace bullying and “difficult duchess” behavior began to gain traction on that tour, according to Times of London royal reporter Valentine Low. While Meghan and Harry have long denied such allegations and branded them as evidence of a “smear campaign” against them, the claims followed her from Kensington Palace to her recent business and philanthropic ventures in America.
Australians who have become aware of Meghan’s alleged pretensions and treatment of staff view her “why am I not being paid to talk to these people?” attitude as “a direct middle finger aimed right at them,” journalist Paula Froelich wrote this week on her Inside Scoop Substack. That’s one of the many reasons, Froelich said, that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex might be in “for a rude awakening” when they return to Australia.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that Meghan and Harry hope they can rewrite history and recapture the magic of the best public moments of their Australia trip. They will swing into Sydney and Melbourne for what are described as “private, business, and philanthropic engagements.” Harry is expected to attend events connected with the Invictus Games, while Meghan has been booked for a “Girls’ Weekend” retreat, where participants can pay several thousand Australian dollars to have a photo taken with her, reported The Royalist journalist Tom Sykes.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – OCTOBER 16: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex meets a Koala called Ruby during a visit to Taronga Zoo on October 16, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on their official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski – Pool/Getty Images)
This Australia trip follows Meghan and Harry’s politically sensitive, “quasi-royal” tour to Jordan on Feb. 25 and 26 — just two days before the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran. It also comes after a new Wall Street Journal profile of Harry portrayed him as “adrift and isolated” in California, their home since leaving royal life in 2020. Meghan also has been in the news the past few days because Netflix has cut ties with her As Ever lifestyle brand, after dropping her critically panned, low-rated streaming show, “With Love, Meghan.”
Netflix also has yet to move forward with developing a movie project with the Sussexes, who also closed down their Archewell Foundation before Christmas. These professional setbacks are more indications that the couple are looking for a new purpose, which seems to include reasserting their association with the British royal family — even amid talks about future King William wanting to strip them of their titles.
Meghan and Harry’s “quasi-royal” visit to Australia comes with its own political sensitivities, according to Sykes and others. Polling in the past year shows that Australians are split over the monarchy and King Charles III’s role as their head of state, he said. Meanwhile, if Australians want to be graced by any royal visits, it’s not by Meghan and Harry, Oliveri reported. According to a 2023 survey by Oliveri’s news organization, only 6% of respondents wanted a visit from the Sussexes, while many more — 45% — would prefer a visit from Prince William and Kate Middleton.
TOPSHOT – Britain’s Prince Harry (L) and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at the University of the South Pacific in Suva on October 24, 2018. – British royal Meghan Markle recounted her own struggles to afford university as she passionately promoted female education to Fijian students in her first speech of the Oceania royal tour on October 24. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP) (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)
This reported lack of enthusiasm for Meghan and Harry could be attributed to reporting that later came out about Meghan’s alleged behavior on their tour, as Low revealed in his 2022 book, “Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor.”
During the tour, Jason Knauf, the former communications secretary for both Meghan and Harry and William and Catherine, wrote an email to William’s private secretary, letting him know that he had informed HR of “some very serious problems” concerning Meghan’s behavior. Knauf alleged that the duchess “was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year,” “seems intent on always having someone in her sights” and is “bullying (an unnamed staffer) and seeking to undermine her confidence.”
Knauf also said that Meghan and Harry’s trip to Australia — which included visits to New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga — had become “very challenging” and was “made worse by the behavior of the duchess.”
While Meghan’s “refreshingly informal approach” in public proved to be a hit — and she clearly enjoyed the attention — she “failed to understand the point of all these walkabouts,” Low wrote in his book. That’s what led to her to allegedly grumble in front of several staffers: “I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this.”
SUVA, FIJI – OCTOBER 23: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive for the State dinner on October 23, 2018 in Suva, Fiji. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on their official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. (Photo by Ian Vogler – Pool/Getty Images)
Low also reported that staff “felt that they were being treated harshly” by Meghan, and one was “screamed at” before and during a flight from Tonga to Sydney. There were other controversial moments on the tour, which were later revealed in Low’s book and other reports. For a state dinner in Fiji, the duchess accessorized her blue evening gown with an eye-catching pair of diamond earrings. It turned out that the earrings had been a wedding present from Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. In the weeks before that dinner, dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and the Times and other outlets reported that world leaders had come to suspect the crown prince in the murder.
“The idea that Meghan would, at a state occasion, knowingly wear earrings given to her by a man accused of having blood on his hands was surprising to say the very least,” Low wrote.
There was another controversial moment in Fiji, when Meghan abruptly left a visit to a market in Suva, Fiji’s capital. She was supposed to spend about 15 minutes talking to female vendors, but after eight minutes, she was rushed out, with headlines suggesting that the pregnant duchess had felt overcome by the crowds. But Low and others later reported that Meghan was somehow angry about the presence of U.N. Women at the market, even though she had worked with the organization in the past.
The Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English reported in 2021 that she witnessed Meghan turn and “hiss” at a member of her entourage in the market, “clearly incandescent with rage about something and demand to leave.” English said she later saw that “highly distressed” staff member sitting in an official car, “with tears running down her face.”
According to Froelich, some Australians may have been especially angry over reports that Meghan was put out because they were given only a wing of Admiralty House, the Australian Governor General’s official Sydney residence, for their stay, rather than the whole property.
As another royal reporter, Shauna Kay, observed to Froelich: “This isn’t about gossip, it’s about accountability. Australians have never been shy asking for it. Complaints were made and the subsequent report by the palace was buried. Aussies don’t like being managed, spun or talked down to, and their visit reopens these questions.”