There were so many hilarious levels to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Australian “tour” two weeks ago. In my opinion, they built the tour around two scheduled speeches, one for Harry and one for Meghan. Once Australians learned that Harry and Meghan were coming to Oz, they were likely inundated with appearance requests, and the “tour” was built from there. H&M visited a Melbourne hospital, they visited survivors of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, Harry visited a war memorial solo, etc. The reason their visit looked like a royal tour is because they did several events which absolutely looked like something King Charles or Prince William would have done. Or in this case, “should have done.”
While Charles and Camilla visited Australia in the fall of ‘24, the Prince and Princess of Wales haven’t visited Australia in over a decade, since 2014. They’ve had plenty of opportunity to visit one of the largest and most significant Commonwealth realms, but William and Kate have repeatedly refused. Now that Harry and Meghan went to Oz and paid for the trip out of their own pocket, the pressure is building for Will and Waity to visit their future realm. It’s a real “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” proposition too – either they look like they’re seething with jealousy over the Sussexes and copying Harry & Meghan… or if they refuse to go to Oz, they look lazy and out-of-touch. Well, one Australian tabloid claims that Will & Kate are determined to go to Australia at some point, maybe!
When the Prince and Princess of Wales warmly interacted with members of the public at an event in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday, at Buckingham Palace on April 21, they looked happy and totally at ease.
“They are just so natural with the public,” a palace insider tells New Idea. “It also signalled their importance as senior working royals.”
But following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent ‘quasi-royal’ tour of Australia, calls have increased for Prince William, 43, and Princess Catherine, 44, to display some of that warmth further afield – on an official state visit to our shores! The couple received a rapturous reception when they were last here in 2014, accompanied by a then baby Prince George.
A return visit with George, now 12, Princess Charlotte, who turns 11 on May 2, and Prince Louis, eight, has been on the cards for years. But it was put on the back burner following Kate’s cancer diagnosis in 2024.
“Now that her health has improved, Kate and William know an official visit to a Commonwealth country as important as Australia – as a family – is overdue, especially since King Charles and Queen Camilla, who are in their late 70s, made the trip in 2024,” our source says. “They are well aware too that an official tour by them will take any gloss off Prince Harry and Meghan’s recent, controversial visit.”
During Harry and Meghan’s four days here, eyebrows were raised at the palace about the couple conducting a ‘half-in, half-out’ royal tour. They met with victims of the Bondi massacre, which is exactly the sort of engagement Wills and Kate would be expected to undertake. They also allegedly received payments for their speaking engagements.
“It was exactly what Queen Elizabeth refused as an option when Harry and Meghan decided to leave full-time royal work in 2020, ahead of their move to California,” our source says. “William and Kate both know that they need to give Australia a real ‘bells and whistles’ royal tour as soon as their schedule allows.”
Palace insiders are unofficially calling the visit, which could happen before the end of this year, “a revenge tour”.
“William and Kate know that the Australian public deserve better,” our source adds. “It’s their job to make it happen.”
LMAO @ “revenge tour.” A “revenge tour” and it’s just two lazy 40-somethings getting off their asses and doing their jobs, jobs which they should have been doing for the past 15 years. As I said, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. That was left unsaid during Harry and Meghan’s tour as well – they were making Will and Kate look like lazy bums. The fact that H&M were greeted with such enthusiasm and they were welcomed as they undertook “royal-style” engagements, all of that was such a sharp contrast to Will & Kate’s meager schedules and their refusal to undertake royal tours since the 2022 Caribbean Flop Tour.
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