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How Meghan Markle & Harry’s Australia tour ‘broke them’ & was the ‘catalyst’ for Megxit – ahead of King’s ‘tiring’ trip
Watch the video above for an insight into Meg and Harry's tour
KING Charles and Queen Camilla are heading on their Australia and Samoa royal tour this week and are set for an action-packed nine days.
Their trip comes six years after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s high profile trip Down Under which is said to have “broken” the couple.
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According to a royal expert the Sussexes’ trip became a “catalyst” for leaving their roles as senior working roles and relocating to America.
Royal historian Tim Ewart spoke on Sky News Australia’s and said Meghan and Harry’s Australian tour was a huge success.
He claimed Meghan’s impact in Australia was “Princess Diana multiplied by two”.
Tim added: “They loved Australia and Australia responded to them.
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“In those early days of Meghan and Harry, Meghan got an incredible reaction from the public.
“If Diana had been a breath of fresh air, it was Diana multiplied by two for Meghan.”
However, upon arriving back to the UK after their successful tour, Meghan and Harry felt they received little “praise and recognition” from The Firm.
Tim added: “Australia broke Harry and Meghan and was one of the catalysts for them leaving the royal family.
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“She and Harry had expected they would get much more praise and recognition from that royal tour.”
Royal reporter Angela Mollard claimed Meghan grew frustrated following the trip, saying: “She was part of a big institution and she wasn’t the hero of it, she was a cog in the wheel and that became clear (after Australia).”
Inside Queen Camilla’s fears for ‘exhausting’ Australia tour amid King Charles health news & key coping mechanism she relies on, claims royal expert
Tour success
In their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan and Harry agreed that “things really changed” for them after the Australia tour.
Harry said: "It really changed after the Australia tour, after our South Pacific tour. It was the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job.
“And that brought back memories.
“To see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family so quickly in Australia and across New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, and just be able to connect with people.”
However, despite the tour’s “success”, within 18 months Meghan and Harry had stepped back from their royal roles and moved to California with their son Archie.
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Charles’ ‘exhausting’ tour
King Charles’ Australia tour this week is historic, given it’s his first there as reigning monarch, but it could be “extremely exhausting” for Camilla who “doesn’t like flying”, according to an expert.
The royal couple will land in Australia on Friday, then head to Samoa on Wednesday October 23, before departing for the UK on Saturday October 26.
Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward told Fabulous: “Queen Camilla is 76.
“She gets very tired because she's not born to this royal life.
Australia broke Harry and Meghan and was one of the catalysts for them leaving the royal family
Tim Ewart
“I know she's been in it a long time, but she's not born to it, and I think people sometimes forget that Camilla's never actually had a job.
“I think she finds these trips extremely exhausting. She doesn't like flying.
“She's not a great traveller, and she's not good in the heat, because you know her, you know, like a lot of women of her age her feet swell up, and she feels uncomfortable.
“So it's not the most pleasurable thing to do for her to whisk across to Australia although it might be really exciting for somebody younger.”
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Despite the tour being potentially taxing for Queen Camilla, the royal expert claimed she will make it a success.
Ingrid continued: “I don't think it's great for her, but she has got a great humour, and she's absolutely lovely to everybody.
“She'll take a hairdresser. She'll take her dresser, Jackie.
“She'll have plenty of staff around her to help her, and she's she is just so good humoured that people really like her.
I think she [Queen Camilla] finds these trips extremely exhausting. She doesn't like flying.
Ingrid Seward
“Even when there's a dire situation she can turn it around and make and make it much better.
“She's what we call an upper person.
“She makes the best of any situation, and she can always make it, you know, find some amusement somewhere to cheer everybody up.”
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Tour itinerary
The King and Queen will start their trip in Sydney on October 18 before heading to capital Canberra three days later for a banquet with senior politicians.
It’ll be Charles’ 17th visit to Australia but his first trip to a Commonwealth nation since becoming King.
It’s also his first visit to Australia since 2018 when he opened the Commonwealth Games on the Queensland Gold Coast.
All State Premiers have been invited to the Canberra banquet, but not one has accepted to welcome Charles and Camilla at the reception, it's reported.
Charles’ cancer treatment
Royal Editor for The Times Kate Mansey said on the podcast that Charles will pause his cancer treatment during the trip, but pick it back up upon his return.
She said: “They've said he's pausing his treatment during the tour, so they must be reasonably reassured that he can go that period of time.
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“He's been having treatment for quite some time now, since the beginning of the year, and on medical advice, he can pause it while he's away and will resume it when he comes back.
“This doesn't mean he's finished his cancer treatment—there's been no announcement on that point of view—but it is a sign that he's perhaps well enough.”
Inside Charles' cancer fightback
By Matt Wilkinson, Royal Editor
IT was an announcement that sent shockwaves around the world – King Charles had cancer and would be stepping back from public-facing duty just 16 months into his reign.
For this no-nonsense, keep-calm and-carry-on Monarch — eldest son of the even more hard-headed Prince Philip — to admit he had to ease back on his workload meant one thing: it was bad.
Dutiful Camilla, 77, stood in for the King when he stepped back from a string of engagements including the Royal Maundy Service at Worcester Cathedral and a solo two-day visit to Belfast, both in March.
But fast forward just six months from the announcement and incredibly he is now fit enough to travel 10,000 miles for a gruelling tour of Australia and Samoa.
As one source close to the King, 75, told me: "The sun wasn't shining in February but it is shining now."
The King's aides were keen to point out when he made his public comeback at a cancer hospital on April 30 that not all recovery programmes for cancer patients are the same.
Yet while he is "not yet out of the woods", according to those in his inner circle, they add there is "great optimism" and treatment has gone "better than anyone would have thought".
Today the details of exactly how the Royal Household put our much-loved Monarch back together again are revealed.
From exactly why he was pulled from duty to the pioneering treatments that meant he never lost his hair — and the real reason his wayward son, Harry, was given an audience of just 30 minutes.
Charles' ordeal began in January when he revealed he needed a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.
He decided to allow the public to know what he was going through, which resulted in a huge outpouring of sympathy.
Charles was touched by the public reaction but also significantly buoyed when it was revealed the NHS website received 11 times more daily visits from men with similar concerns.
But then his condition would take a turn for the worse.
Charles was due to spend two nights in the London Clinic — where Kate was also being treated — so when he spent a third night in care, people started to become concerned.
Those worries were realised when tests revealed cancer.
But rather than hide this devastating news from the public he decided that following the supportive reaction to his prostate diagnosis he would allow it to be made public.
A carefully constructed plan inspired by Operation Bubble which protected the late Queen from Covid-19 was thrown into action.
He would have weekly treatment in London and factor in vital periods of rest time at Sandringham, Highgrove and Windsor.
But his health plan was thrown into turmoil when Prince Harry announced he would jet from Los Angeles to see his father.
While the King delayed his helicopter flight from Buckingham Palace to Sandringham, his wayward son was given just 30 minutes of his company at Clarence House.
Plans were in place to avoid the King contacting a secondary infection and Harry flying 5,000 miles on a jet was not ideal.
Aides prevented Harry, 39, joining his father at Sandringham fearing "we'd never get rid of him" and he needed to reduce his social contact while undergoing cancer treatment.
During this time a Freedom of Information request revealed the Department for Culture and Media had begun procurement for the King’s potential funeral — although sources say this is not unusual.
Suggestions that William had been lined up as a potential Prince Regent if the King was unable to carry out the position have been denied by Buckingham Palace.
But the King was withdrawn from all public duty for 103 days although he continued reading government red boxes.
It can now be revealed the decision to postpone his public facing role was made as a "precautionary measure" because of the King's diminished immune response to other diseases.
The Royal Household copied Covid-style protocols — or tiers imposed by the Government during the pandemic — to minimise secondary infection such as seasonal cold or flu.
A source said: "We had to minimise potential risk from other people, not because he couldn’t do the job."
But as winter turned into spring and weather became warmer it meant they could relax the Covid-style tiers.
This was demonstrated when the King emerged from the Easter Sunday service and was greeted by 60 well-wishers at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Just days earlier, the monarch and his team had received news that the treatment had gone better than anyone could have expected.
One insider said: "He was raring to go after the positive results and didn’t want to hang around any longer."
It meant the King told aides that a trip to Australia, seen as the most important tour a monarch will ever take, must go ahead in the autumn, as first revealed by The Sun.
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