Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have completed the first day of their latest tour of Australia with engagements in Melbourne – and former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond believes it won’t even make waves within the Firm
Harry and Meghan arrive in Australia: cue the criticism and disparaging comments about their visit. I’m really quite tired of all the Harry and Meghan bashing just for the sake of it.
Why shouldn’t they go to Australia? Why shouldn’t they do exactly what they set out to do: carry out a combination of commercial and charitable work? Why do people insist on calling it quasi or faux royal tour? Harry and Meghan have never called it that.
They are not doing any walkabouts or, as far as we know, having high-level discussions with dignitaries or politicians. They are there to promote themselves – evidently – but also to do some charitable work along the way.
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I don’t think anyone could have expected crowds as large as on their first visit, when they were working royals and the darlings of the public. But they seem to have been given an extremely warm welcome by the quite sizable number of people who turned out to see them on their first day.
They are celebrities, and Harry is a prince. They are newsworthy – and the constant stories we write about them ensure they remain so.
Visiting the children’s hospital in Melbourne seems entirely natural to me. Harry‘s grandmother opened it and his parents visited it 40 years ago. Nurses there said the children and their families were excited to meet the couple and intrigued to see them in person.
This trip coincides with the Easter holidays over here, when the rest of the royal family take a bit of time off. So there are no major conflicts with the royal diary. And I doubt that they will be paying much attention to it.
This kind of visit is precisely what Harry and Meghan wanted to do at the start of the whole sorry story that led them stepping down as working royals. They wanted to combine earning a living with some charitable work. So, here they are doing exactly that. What’s the problem?
Personally, I do think it’s a bit tacky for Meghan to be selling access to herself – you can pay to have a photo taken with her when she is at the women’s weekend retreat. But then business is sometimes tacky and she is seeking commercial opportunities for her As Ever brand.
So I don’t understand what the controversy, if there really is one, is all about.
