Harry and Meghan are heading to Australia for the first time since their show-stopping official royal tour back in 2018, but there’s been plenty of criticism levied at the couple before they’ve even arrived
Meghan and Harry are heading to Australia, but the critics aren’t happy about it(Image: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
A source close to Prince Harry and Meghan Meghan has delivered a scathing response to the “misinformation” surrounding their upcoming trip to Australia, branding the backlash as “irrational” hate bait.
While some critics have dubbed the jaunt a “pseudo-royal” tour and a petition has circulated regarding the cost to taxpayers, the Sussexes’ camp has hit back, insisting the trip is entirely privately funded.
According to those in their inner circle, the couple is heading Down Under for legitimate work and to shine a light on charitable causes like the Invictus Games – and argued that the world could use “a little more Harry and Meghan” and a little less “sad” sniping.
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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan during their last visit Down Under(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Now an insider has revealed to the Mirror exactly why they are making the visit, hitting back at the seemingly ceaseless criticism and “misinformation” of the couple’s trip.
Someone who knows the couple tells the Mirror: “There is a lot of misinformation being spread about this trip – all designed to whip up hate. The truth is you have a couple heading down under for work. While they’re in town, they’re going to check-in on some charitable causes that they have long supported and – in the Duke’s case with the Invictus Games – he set-up.
“The couple are critically aware that by just visiting a charity, they can help shine a light on its work – bringing media attention that wouldn’t otherwise exist. They don’t have to do that,” the source continues.
“They could just as easily get paid and head straight back to California. It’s an irrational reaction to s***-can a couple who just want to support some the charitable causes close to them. God forbid they try to do any good in a world that could, frankly, use a little more Harry and Meghan, and a little less sniping from ‘Royal Commentators’ who make a living by proving hate bait for anyone willing to platform them. It’s sad. What a way to make a living.”
Much has been made from critics that the couple seem to be operating on a basis that is not that dissimilar from the official royal tours they once undertook as working members of the House of Windsor – with the terms ‘quasi and pseudo-royal’ regularly thrown around.
The couple last went to Australia not long after they tied the knot in 2018 and it was definitely a show stopper on that occasion. The sparkle had certainly not faded for the public after their lavish royal wedding in May that year, and the 16-day visit in October was their first ever overseas tour together as working royals – and crucially it was also when it was announced that Meghan was pregnant with her first child.
Whilst the reception could not have been warmer when they last arrived in Australia, questions have been raised by commentators and royal experts about exactly what will meet them this time: with the couple now in a starkly different position these days then they were back then.
Princess Diana’s first tour to Australia with Charles was seen as a massive success
In Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, he highlighted his first tour with his wife as a moment when – despite its successes – anxiety started to rear its head. “All across Australia,” he wrote about his new wife, “she dazzled. She was so brilliant that midway through the tour I felt compelled … to warn her. ‘You’re doing too well, my love. You’re making it look too easy. This is how everything started … with my mother.'”
Whilst the Sussexes were relatively high in the royal pecking order, they certainly never occupied the top position, and Harry’s fears at the time about Meghan’s star power seemed to be based on the concern that it could overshadow the more senior members of the Firm, like the late Queen, his father then-Prince Charles, and elder brother William.
“Their first tour was such a joyous, lovely time for them; the adoration was off the charts and they seemed so unaffected,” Mick Carroll, editor-in-chief of news.com.au , has said to the Independent. “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.”
The pair are heading to Australia, but the critics aren’t happy about it(Image: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Royal author Valentine Low, who travelled with the couple during their last trip to the country, echoed these sentiments, saying it was uncertain what kind of reception the couple might get when they return to Australia. “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.” However, Low also pointed out that Meghan and Harry have “a certain celebrity gloss” that a good chunk of people prefer to the “stuffy and outdated” atmosphere that surrounds the House of Windsor at large.
Duncan Larcombe, author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, tells the Mirror: “The 2018 tour was a proper full-on royal tour. It was the first chance for a lot of people that followed this sort of thing to see them since their wedding. And they were big, big hitters within the Royal Family at that time.
“This tour’s slightly different. I mean, it’s…questionable as to why on earth is it even happening going ahead in the first place. I think Australia has its fair share of Republicans, which is fair enough, but even some of the die-hard Royalists are very angry with Harry and Meghan for the way they’ve behaved, the way they’ve sold out to the highest bidder, and the criticisms they’ve levelled at other members of the Royal Family. So actually it’s quite unpredictable to see how they’ll be received. I’m sure the people that they actually physically meet will be sycophantic and the usual gushing kind of stuff you get. But I think there’ll be an awful lot of people in Australia saying ‘Well why are we paying for this? Why is this happening? Who do they think they are?'”
Speculation about who is paying for the trip has created some controversy online, with a petition springing up from advocacy group Beyond Australia that was signed by more than 32,000 people urging the government not to pay for the Sussex to visit – the only problem that the petitioners seemed to have missed is, the government aren’t paying for it.
An insider has hit back at the criticism levelled at the pair
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess tells the Mirror: “Mr Larcombe should know better than to source his information from ‘X’. Australians are not paying for this trip. It is being privately funded.”
They add about the petition: “It’s a moot point. The trip is being funded privately, so I’m not sure what this petition hopes to achieve… Of course, if you wanted to dive into the ridiculousness of this petition as an agenda for spreading misinformation, then one could equally hypothesise that there are approximately 26.5 million Australians (99.98% of the population) who haven’t signed it, who must therefore agree with the tax-payer picking up the tab for their visit. Of course, that is another stupid assertion to make but hey, why let common sense get in the way of a good story…”
Whilst they are there, Meghan will be speaking at a gala dinner part of an event billed as “a girls’ weekend like no other” and a question and answer session will take place in a “fireside chat” – VIP tickets will set fans back about £1,700. The couple’s spokesperson has confirmed that the couple will be taking part in commercial, private, and charitable events whilst they are in Australia.