Meghan Markle and Prince Harry<\/a>\u00a0may be in for a mixed reception when they fly to Australia next month\u00a0\u2013 their first visit since they married almost eight years ago.<\/p>\n The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s last\u00a0tour of Australia\u00a0\u2013 just after their 2018 wedding\u00a0\u2013 was a big success with huge crowds turning out<\/a> to greet them.<\/p>\n But now they have been warned to have ‘thick skins’ when they go Down Under in mid-April because they are ‘no longer assured of a warm welcome’.<\/p>\n Experts have predicted that their visit will become a ‘lightning rod’ for Australia’s republicans and ignite further debate about whether King Charles<\/a> III should be head of state.<\/p>\n And royalists upset about the Sussexes’ years of potshots at Harry’s family may also turn out to greet them, meaning the warm welcome they enjoyed in 2018<\/a> may have evaporated.<\/p>\n ‘I think there will be plenty of monarchists and republicans who won\u2019t welcome Harry and Meghan\u2019s visit. Any \u201croyal\u201d visit, even by members of the family who no longer represent the King, will inevitably create debate about the monarchy,’ an insider said today.<\/p>\n \u2018Harry and Meghan\u2019s visit will inevitably prompt questions about why there haven\u2019t been more frequent visits there by other members of the family.<\/a> It will throw the spotlight on the Prince and Princess of Wales in particular.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet 98-year-old Daphne Dunne during a walkabout outside the Sydney Opera House on the first day of the Royal couple’s visit to Australia in 2018\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harry and his wife (pictured with Australia’s then Governor General Peter Cosgrove in Sydney) claimed that it was on this trip that Meghan showed what an asset she was to the Royal Family, but that his relatives’ treatment of her changed after it<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meghan and Harry’s last appearance together in the UK in 2022 saw them booed as they arrived at St Paul’s Cathedral to attend the service of thanksgiving for the late Queen’s reign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Journalist Tom Sykes wrote\u00a0on his The Royalist substack<\/a>\u00a0of the upcoming Australia trip: ‘The Sussexes are likely to be lightning rods in Australia\u2019s ongoing debate about the\u00a0royal family<\/a> and the country\u2019s constitutional future.<\/p>\n \u2018For now, one thing seems certain: Harry and Meghan will need thick skins when they arrive in a country where they are no longer assured of a warm welcome.’<\/p>\n The Sussexes’ trip to Australia in around five weeks’ time will also cause a major headache for King Charles and Prince William.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the couple said they ‘will visit Australia in mid-April to take part in a number of private, business and philanthropic engagements’.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It has not been confirmed yet whether the Sussexes’ children, <\/span>Prince Archie<\/a>, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, will join them on the trip or remain in Montecito, <\/span>California<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Back in September, the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese had tea with the King at Balmoral and publicly invited the Prince and Princess of Wales to tour the country,’ the Mail’s royal insider added.<\/p>\n \u2018There have been rumours of a visit in July or August but it\u2019s not looking likely at the moment.<\/p>\n \u2018Either way, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are going to get there first.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple confirmed yesterday that they will be visiting Australia in the coming weeks, marking more than seven years since their royal tour<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the Sussexes visited Australia as newlyweds, the country welcomed them with open arms.<\/p>\n Meghan was pregnant with Archie and Harry said he could not think of a better place to tell the world<\/a> that they were having their first child.<\/p>\n But later Harry said that the tour ‘really changed’ his family’s view and treatment of his wife, claiming she showed them how ‘effortlessly’ she took to royal duties.<\/p>\n ‘It was the first time the family got to see how incredible she was at the job,’ adding that she was already ‘one of the greatest assets to the Commonwealth that the family could have ever wished for’.<\/p>\n It would prove to be the catalyst for Megxit less than two years later.<\/p>\n In Valentine Low’s bombshell book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown, Palace staff made bullying claims about Meghan,\u00a0which she has consistently denied, adding that she is the target of bullying herself and is deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Low wrote of Australia: ‘Massive crowds were turning out to see them, and Meghan\u2019s refreshingly informal approach to royal visits was proving a hit with the Australian public<\/a>.<\/p>\n ‘Behind the scenes, however, it was a different story. Although she enjoyed the attention, Meghan failed to understand the point of all those walkabouts, shaking hands with countless strangers.’<\/p>\n The couple, pictured arriving in Sydney for their trip in 2018, are expected to tour the city again and also head to Melbourne<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One expert claims that the Australia trip makes the Prince and Princess of Wales look bad because the Sussexes have beaten them to it<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reports suggested the Duke and Duchess of Sussex<\/a>\u00a0could visit Sydney<\/a> and Melbourne<\/a>\u00a0next month.<\/p>\n While their plans have yet to be announced, it is likely the couple will meet with Australia’s armed forces or veterans’ community, given Harry’s connections to both.\u00a0<\/p>\n However it is understood Meghan could also venture into Australia’s podcasting scene, with reports she is due to appear as a guest on the Her Best Life podcast, launched and co-hosted by Jackie O Henderson<\/a>\u00a0through her ‘Besties’ company.<\/p>\n The embattled radio star, who is currently in the news following the shock collapse of the Kyle and Jackie O Show last week, ‘stepped away’ from the podcast in February.<\/p>\n Meghan is also rumoured to appear as a special guest at an upcoming Besties event, similar to actress Gwyneth Paltrow who took part in a Q&A with Henderson at Sydney’s Darling Harbour in 2023.<\/p>\n The Sussexes last travelled to Australia in 2018 as working members of the British royal family.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/03\/09\/11\/106984711-15627987-Harry_pictured_with_claimed_that_it_was_on_this_trip_that_Meghan-m-4_1773054680705.jpg\")
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