MELBOURNE, Australia — More than six years after their headline-grabbing 2018 official royal tour as newlyweds, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan, have returned to Australian soil for their first visit since stepping down as working senior members of the British royal family. The four-day, intentionally low-profile trip, which will take the couple from Melbourne to Canberra and finally Sydney, comes four years after their 2020 announcement that they would step away from senior royal duties, relocate to California, and pursue full financial independence.
Unlike their 16-day 2018 tour that included massive public gatherings across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga — where thousands of well-wishers turned out to greet the newlyweds — this visit will not feature large-scale public events. A core point of contention that led to this scaled-back schedule is the ongoing debate over who should cover the couple’s additional security costs for Australian law enforcement agencies. The couple have emphasized that the entire trip is privately funded, and they traveled on a commercial Qantas Airways flight from Los Angeles in business class, but public pushback over unplanned taxpayer security expenses has shaped the visit’s low-key format. Their two young children, 6-year-old Prince Archie and 4-year-old Princess Lilibet, did not accompany them on the trip; notably, Meghan announced Archie’s pregnancy during the couple’s 2018 stop in Sydney.
Criticism has mounted from multiple corners over the purpose of the visit. Local outlet the *Herald Sun* framed the trip as a “faux royal tour” designed to boost the couple’s personal “Brand Sussex”, while other commentators have pushed back against their schedule of paid ticketed public events. The Sussexes’ team has rejected claims that this is a publicity-driven promotional tour. In an official statement, their office noted the itinerary centers on long-standing work the couple has prioritized, with a core goal of amplifying charitable organizations that deliver proven community impact. The visit, the statement added, is focused on listening, learning, and supporting local communities rather than self-promotion, while also confirming it includes a small number of private engagements to support both charitable and commercial goals.
Opinions among royal observers are split on the controversy surrounding the trip. Afua Hagan, a media commentator who specializes in coverage of the British royal family, noted that mainstream media has long framed Harry and Meghan as public “villains”, leaving the couple in a no-win situation. “This is a privately funded trip. To pay for that, they’re going to have to have some commercial interest,” Hagan told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “If they didn’t have commercial interest, the problem would be: ‘Oh my goodness, these people are leeching off the Royal Family and the taxpayers whether or not they’re making their own money. How dare they make their own money.’ They can’t do right for doing wrong.”
On the other side of the debate, Giselle Bastin, a British royal studies expert at Australia’s Flinders University, argued that the couple’s choice to leverage their royal titles to advance private commercial interests creates a clear conflict of interest for many observers. “It’s well known that the Sussexes are in dire need of income and so a staging of a quasi-royal tour to Australia is being regarded as a rather desperate attempt to monetise their status as royalty,” Bastin explained.
The couple marked their first public engagement of the trip at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, a venue with personal ties to Harry: his parents, then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana, visited the same facility back in 1985. As the pair entered the hospital foyer, they shook hands with dozens of waiting well-wishers, while hundreds of onlookers captured the moment on personal mobile devices. When a reporter asked what Harry was most looking forward to during his time in Australia, he simply replied: “Everything,” adding, “It’s good to be back.”
The remainder of the itinerary aligns with causes Harry and Meghan have long championed. In Melbourne, Meghan is scheduled to visit a local women’s shelter, while Harry will tour a veterans’ art museum. From there, the couple will travel to Canberra, where Harry will visit the iconic Australian War Memorial, before wrapping up the trip in Sydney with a sailing event hosted by Invictus Australia. The Invictus Games, the international sporting competition for ill and injured military personnel and veterans, was founded by Harry in 2014, and the couple hosted the opening of the 2018 Invictus Games during their last visit to Sydney.