Harry and Meghan are in Australia for the first time since 2018, when they went on an official tour, announced Meghan’s pregnancy with Archie, and Harry competed in the Invictus Games in Sydney. This trip is different in almost every way. There is no real agenda, no British flag behind it, and the money does not come from taxpayers.
The trip is being financed privately, which makes perfect sense given that since 2020, the couple has no longer received funds from the Sovereign Grant, the state mechanism that covers the Royal Family’s expenses.
Harry explained it himself in his 2021 interview with Oprah: The royal family cut him off financially, and it was the money Diana left him that enabled them to settle in Montecito. Since then, they have been supporting themselves through speaking engagements, business deals, and their own projects.
This trip fits that model to a T: Meghan is the keynote speaker at a Her Best Life podcast retreat in Sydney, and Harry is giving a talk on mental health in the workplace at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne. Two paid engagements, with a cause included.
The Sussexes’ first day in Australia
But the most human moment of the trip took place at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, where they arrived with little advance notice and found hundreds of people waiting for them.
They visited patients, took part in a garden therapy session, and a four-year-old girl named Lily gave them a welcome drawing and a flower. Meghan hugged her. Harry asked her how long it had taken her to make it.
Afterward, Meghan went to a women’s shelter in the city, put on an apron, and served frittata to those at the center, which supports women and children experiencing domestic violence and homelessness.
Not everyone welcomed them with open arms. Some Sydney residents told the BBC that they find the couple “boring” and that the trip reeks of self-promotion.
It should be noted that their children, Archie and Lilibet, did not accompany them on this trip.