Seven years away from Australia and the Sussexes are heading back — but the country they return to in April is a very different proposition from the one that cheered them through the streets as newlyweds in 2018.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed a mid-April trip covering private, business and philanthropic commitments, with Sydney and Melbourne understood to be on the itinerary. Given Harry's deep ties to the military, an engagement with Australia's armed forces or veterans' community is widely expected.
What is less certain is the welcome awaiting them. Journalist Tom Sykes, writing on his The Royalist substack, issued a blunt assessment: "Harry and Meghan will need thick skins when they arrive in a country where they are no longer assured of a warm welcome."
Sykes warned the couple's arrival would pour accelerant on Australia's already combustible debate about the monarchy. "The Sussexes are likely to be lightning rods in Australia's ongoing debate about the royal family and the country's constitutional future," he wrote.
A royal insider said the hostility would come from both directions. "I think there will be plenty of monarchists and republicans who won't welcome Harry and Meghan's visit. Any 'royal' visit, even by members of the family who no longer represent the King, will inevitably create debate about the monarchy," they said.
The source added that the trip would sharpen questions about why other royals had stayed away for so long. "Harry and Meghan's visit will inevitably prompt questions about why there haven't been more frequent visits there by other members of the family. It will throw the spotlight on the Prince and Princess of Wales in particular."
The trip lands at an uncomfortable moment for the King and the Prince of Wales. Anthony Albanese extended a personal invitation to William and Catherine over tea with Charles at Balmoral last September, with July or August floated as possible timing — though those plans have stalled. The Sussexes have now beaten them to it.
Whether Archie, six, and Lilibet, four, will accompany their parents or stay behind in Montecito has yet to be confirmed.
The last time Harry and Meghan set foot in Australia, the country rolled out a reception fit for royalty. Crowds turned out in their thousands, Meghan's unguarded warmth won over the Australian public, and Harry chose the tour to share the news that the couple were expecting their first child, saying he could not think of a better place to make the announcement.
He would later say the trip had been a turning point in how his family viewed his wife. It was, he said, "the first time the family got to see how incredible she was at the job" — a woman already "one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever wished for."
Author Valentine Low told a more complicated story in his book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown. While acknowledging that Meghan's "refreshingly informal approach to royal visits was proving a hit with the Australian public," Low wrote that away from the cameras things looked very different. Despite the attention she was receiving, Meghan "failed to understand the point of all those walkabouts, shaking hands with countless strangers," he wrote. Meghan has consistently denied bullying claims from palace staff contained in the book, stating she is the one who has experienced bullying.
The goodwill of 2018 did not survive long after the couple returned home. Within two years, Megxit had happened. Their next and last appearance together on British soil — at St Paul's Cathedral in 2022 for a service honouring the late Queen — was greeted with boos as they arrived.
