Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 96-hour Australian visit is being viewed inside Buckingham Palace as a high-risk “stress test” that could deliver an uncomfortable wake-up call for the institution, royal insiders warn. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex landed in Melbourne on Tuesday aboard a commercial Qantas flight and began their itinerary with a hospital visit echoing their hugely successful 2018 royal tour, yet this time without official backing.
A source close to the planning has described the tour as “a significant joint tour and could prove to be a blueprint for future tours together of this type,” while The Sun’s royal editor Matt Wilkinson warned that success in Australia “will be a dummy run and testing ground for a potential joint tour of the UK.” Palace insiders are said to have their “eyes peeled and closely watching the reaction that the couple receive in Australia,” amid fears a strong showing could highlight the long-term fallout from Megxit.
Royal commentator Daniela Elser cautioned that should this week prove “as rousing a bobby dazzler as the duke and duchess’ 2018 outing was, you have to wonder if it might trigger anything so much like a twinge of Palace regret over their handling of Megxit.” Elser added this visit risks becoming “the strongest, most glaring reminder of how they managed to let the monarchy’s most photogenic trump cards slip through their pasty fingers way back when,” serving as a stark warning to the Royal Family.
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