It was announced on Sunday that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will return to Australia next month on a surprise two to three-day trip comprising both private and public engagements. As King Charles navigates the choppy waters of a US visit in the same month, the couple will no doubt be hoping for an easier ride, banking on being able to recreate their triumphant tour in 2018. Unfortunately, they may be sorely mistaken.
The political and personal landscape around the couple has shifted significantly in the past eight years, and the turbulence around Harry and Meghan, as well as the monarchy in general, shows no sign of abating.
What a different atmosphere it was eight years ago. Expecting their first child, they touched down in Sydney to the sunny embrace of an ecstatic crowd. “Their first tour was such a joyous, lovely time for them; the adoration was off the charts and they seemed so unaffected,” says Mick Carroll, editor-in-chief of news.com.au. “It’s hard to predict what the reception will be this time. There’s definitely still a high level of fascination for them, although all the comments have been pretty negative.”
A spokesperson for the Sussexes said they will visit Sydney and Melbourne “to take part in a number of private, business and philanthropic engagements”.
The couple will not be accompanied by their children, Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, but will no doubt want to be home in time for Archie’s seventh birthday on 6 May.
Meghan is said to be exploring opportunities to expand her As Ever lifestyle brand into Australia after announcing she has ended her agreement with Netflix. It has been confirmed that she will attend the three-day retreat hosted by Her Best Life podcast at the InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach from 17 April, which the organisers describe as “a girls’ weekend like no other”. Invitees are promised several days by the ocean for discussions, wellness sessions, and social gatherings designed to bring women together for what the organisers describe as “powerful conversations, relaxation, laughter, and unforgettable experiences”.
The early bird tickets to the event are set at AU$2,699 (£1,440) per person and will be hosted by radio personality Jackie “O” Henderson, who is currently embroiled in her own highly public work contract battle, having dramatically split with her controversial co-star Kyle Sandilands.
Harry, meanwhile, will be living his best authentic life by focusing on Australia’s armed forces and the Invictus Games. He spent a month on secondment with the Australian Army in Darwin in 2015, so it will feel familiar as well as aligned with his passions and values.
When the couple first visited, the newlyweds baked banana bread for drought-hit farmers and walked barefoot on Bondi Beach. Peter Cosgrove, then the governor general, described Harry as “almost a son of Australia” and, writing at the time for Sydney’s The Sunday Telegraph, this royal reporter likened the couple to “HRH superheroes” bringing “joy to an increasingly negative world”.
But, on the other side of the planet, a different story was playing out. Harry said the success of the tour was the start of the schism with his family, because Meghan shone too brightly. “It was the first time the family got to see how incredible she was at the job,” he told Oprah Winfrey in 2021. The problem was, he said, she was too big a star, just like Diana before her. “All across Australia … she dazzled. She was so brilliant that midway through the tour I felt compelled … to warn her,” he wrote in his autobiography, Spare. “‘You’re doing too well, my love. You’re making it look too easy. This is how everything started … with my mother.’”
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their first trip to Australia when Meghan was pregnant with Archie (PA Archive)
While the duo did dazzle, when they got home, reports began to emerge that behind the scenes, all was not well. Meghan reportedly told staffers: “I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this,” according to Valentine Low in his book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown. The former Times journalist revealed a sulky Harry was rude to the royal press rota on the plane, saying: “Thanks for coming, even though you weren’t invited.”
This visit will be “very different,” says Low, who accompanied the couple in 2018. “There is nothing Australians dislike more than a whingeing Pom, and Harry has become a world-class whinger, so he might be less popular than he was,” he says. However, he does concede the Sussexes have “a certain celebrity gloss” that can delight those who see the rest of the royal family as “stuffy and outdated”.
While the jury is out on what their reception will be, commentators agree it is going to be a “fascinating visit”. And not always for the right reasons.
Coming on the back of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, younger Australians, like younger Britons, are questioning the relevance of the monarchy, says Carroll. “The republican feeling is as potent as it’s ever been, particularly with millennials and Gen Z, whose patience for the monarchy is very thin,” he says. “But Andrew is bearing the brunt of people’s disdain. The younger royals come with a certain level of show business, so there’s a general fascination, whether you like them or not.”
However, that show business will not be enough to stop the call for a republic, according to the Australian Republic Movement. “The recent news around Andrew and the line of succession has been a reality check for many Australians,” says co-chair Nathan Hansford. “It has reminded people that those who can become king or queen of Australia are not chosen by Australians and are not accountable to Australians.”
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The anti-monarchy feeling is rising here and abroad (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
While Harry and Meghan might be hoping to cash in on some of the anti-royal sentiment, it might come as a shock for them to find that their stock is at an all-time low in Australia, as it is in the UK. In January, Meghan recorded her lowest-ever popularity rating at 19 per cent, according to a YouGov poll, second only to Mounbatten-Windsor. In Australia in 2023, a nine.com.au survey polled readers on the royals they’d like to see visit. Harry and Meghan scored just six per cent, compared to William and Catherine’s 45 per cent.
“There’s still a lot of affection for William and Catherine, particularly their children,” says Carroll, who doesn’t doubt Harry and Meghan will be met with interest but thinks it will be mixed and far from the royal fever they experienced in the past. “Australians are likely to be courteous to Harry and Meghan as individuals, but that is separate from a growing sense that Australia should have its own head of state,” says Hansford.
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The Princess of Wales and Prince William arrive to attend the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey this week (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
As the royal family put on the biggest show of unity since the arrest of Mounbatten-Windsor, to mark the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey this week, they were met with a barrage of anti-monarchy protests. As they arrived, King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate, the Princess of Wales, were loudly heckled with chants of “Charles, what do you know?” by protesters waving yellow placards.
The fact that Harry and Meghan have chosen Australia for their royal tour will have raised eyebrows at Buckingham Palace, and the timing of it even more so. Considering the King’s historic visit to the US is also planned for April, it will no doubt add to the list of headaches surrounding it. King Charles’s carefully planned diplomatic visit is already facing several tripwires, including calls from Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for Mounbatten-Windsor to testify, a tempestuous President Trump, who has fallen out with the UK prime minister, and demands for an American boycott. Harry and Meghan’s tour now risks eclipsing any good royal news to come from the King’s tour.
“Harry’s visit to Australia will undoubtedly annoy the palace, because the one thing they don’t like is anyone stealing the King’s thunder,” says Low. “They go out of their way to try to avoid diary clashes, and the King’s team have in the past got decidedly cross when other members of the royal family have dominated the headlines on a day when Charles was hoping for a clear run.”
However, he thinks the royal family is now getting used to Harry and Meghan’s faux-royal tours. “I think their reaction will be one of weary resignation rather than outright fury: they have seen this sort of thing too many times before. They are used to it,” he says.
And while Harry and Meghan threaten to overshadow Charles and Camilla, another king and queen could eclipse them. King Frederik and Queen Mary of Denmark begin a state visit to Australia on Saturday. And as the Tasmania-born Mary is Australia’s “own queen”, Harry and Meghan might have met their royal match.