Harry and Meghan Slammed for Turning ‘Faux’ Royal Tour Into Ticketed Event: ‘Read the Room’
Experts label Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ticketed Australian tour a hybrid mission designed to fund their California lifestyle.
Touching down in Australia in 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were the shining faces of a contemporary Royal Family. As the newlyweds expecting their first child, the Duke and Duchess received a hero’s welcome from adoring crowds and attended a series of grand events. But as they kick off their second tour of the land Down Under today, their first visit has been overshadowed by a hefty price tag — and their status as the ‘future of the Windsors’ is being dismissed as nothing more than a ‘faux-royal’ cosplay.
This four-day tour to Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne lacks the official diplomatic status, carrying none of the formal weight of a sanctioned royal tour. Instead of public walkabouts and state dinners, the itinerary is a mix of high-end promotional events and private interests, sparking a wave of criticism from observers, who argue that the Sussexes have become disconnected from the public they once served. Speaking to The Guardian, Flinders University associate professor and royal researcher Giselle Bastin highlighted, “They’re not reading the room…Having to flog $3,000 tickets to a wellness retreat looks quite pointless in the current world climate. It’s tin-eared.”
The financial barrier to entry is indeed steep. Markle is set to headline the ‘Her Best Life’ retreat in Sydney — pitched as “girls’ weekend like no other” — where a VIP experience, including a group photo with the Duchess, costs a staggering $3,199. On the other hand, the Prince will be taking the stage for a keynote at InderEdge’s ‘psychological safety’ summit, where attendees are paying upwards of $2,378 for platinum tickets. It’s a far cry from their 2018 visit, which the Duke later recalled in his sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, that the tour was a breakthrough, proving to his family how ‘incredible’ Markle truly was at her job. Today, that ‘job’ has transitioned into the development of a personal lifestyle brand.
This pivot toward commercialization has not sat well with the local press. In a critical piece for Nine newspapers, bluntly titled ‘Australia was good to Harry and Meghan. Now they want to use us as an ATM,’ columnist Bevan Shields put the spotlight on the couple’s high-maintenance lifestyle — most notably their $21 million Montecito mansion. Despite multi-million dollar deals secured with the likes of Netflix and Spotify, many still view their recent moves as being on a constant hunt for new ways to fund their California lifestyle. “They have an enormous output in terms of money, and they don’t have as much coming in,” Bastin told the outlet, arguing that the nature of the visit is a strange hybrid of their past and present lives.
She continued, “It’s a faux royal tour. They’re not working royals…I think they’re using Australia as an opportunity to get a sense of the mood, about how they’ll be received … to cosplay what it might be like if they once again become working royals.” While the couple made their first pit stop at the Royal Children’s Hospital on April 14, they are expected to forego the spontaneous walkabouts that were the hallmark of their 2018 visit — creating what Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers calls a “box-ticking tour.”
