Harry and Meghan on tour – and it’s got disaster written all over it | Royal | News
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle first visited Australia in 2018, they arrived with a wave of welcome and goodwill as the new bride was expecting their first baby. But Down Under media and royal experts suggest the Sussexes’ return to Oz in April will need a wizard’s magic to create a similarly warm welcome.
Meanwhile, constitutional experts fear the unofficial visit could help resentful Republicans already emboldened by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson’s friendship with vile US pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. That would also apply to Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, who have spent six years since Megxit trying to subvert the monarchy through salacious TV interviews, documentaries or Harry’s whiny 416-page ‘Substitute’.
In 2018, the late Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth had an 83 per cent approval rating among Australians, but since her death the monarchy debate there has become even more heated, with King Charles receiving only 59 per cent approval.
Royal commentator Amanda Platell says the Sussexes’ statistics are worse, explaining: “They have broken the two golden Australian rules – no snitching and no whining.”
Australian journalist Tom Sykes wrote on Substack The Royalist that Harry and Meghan may fuel “the fire of resentment”, not love.
Already this week a petition has been launched in Australia, oddly enough – as it is a privately funded visit – demanding that taxpayers’ money not be wasted on an unofficial, non-working royal visit.
This is counterintuitive because common sense dictates that at least someone should actually bother to acknowledge them and then have a few cops follow them to get them back on the plane to California.
The Change.org petition titled ‘No Taxpayer Funding or Official Support for Harry and Meghan’s Private Visit to Australia’ has collected more than 37,000 names so far, with more being added every hour.
Beyond Australia, a local advocacy group has launched a campaign to call on ministers to draw a clear line; because this was not an official royal visit.
Despite Megxit drawing a firm line, the group blasted Harry and Meghan’s apparent hopes of being perceived as quasi-working royals, adding: “The events are private and commercial and should be treated strictly as a private visit.”
The ‘private and commercial’ part is well highlighted.
Ahead of the visit, it was revealed that Meghan had been billed as the star guest at the event, which was described as a three-day “perfect girls’ weekend” luxury break dubbed “Meg-stock”, with tickets starting from £1,400 per person.
‘Her Best Life Retreat’ will run for three days from April 17 and attract a sell-out crowd of around 300 people to a hotel above Coogee beach. Those who benefit from VIP packages will find themselves in the front row and take a group photo with Meghan at the InterContinental Hotel premiere.
It comes just days after Meghan’s lifestyle brand As ever announced it was ending its £75 million partnership with streaming giant Netflix, which began in 2020.
A representative for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently rejected the funding petition, saying: “This is a moot point. The trip is privately funded so I’m not sure what this petition hopes to achieve.”
The petition is not an indifference of 37,000 names, it is a weather vane…. It’s in the vein of ‘whether the Sussexes should be doing fake royal trips’.
