Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming visit to Australia in April stands to draw comparisons to Princess Diana’s 1996 Sydney trip that marked a high-profile return to the global stage months after her divorce from then–Prince Charles.
The Sussexes visit was confirmed by their spokesperson on Sunday in a statement to Newsweek: “Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit Australia in mid-April to take part in a number of private, business, and philanthropic engagements. Further details will be shared in due course.”
And it has since emerged Meghan will join a conversation with Her Best Life podcast host Gemma O’Neill at the Her Best Life weekend retreat, where tickets go for more than $2,000 each.
It all comes nearly 30 years after Diana visited Sydney in October 1996—just months after her divorce from Charles was finalized.
Why It Matters
That may well mean comparisons are drawn between Harry and Meghan’s own visit and Diana’s all those years ago. There is nothing to suggest the timing was intential.
Princess Diana’s 1996 Unofficial Australia Tour
Diana’s brief, unofficial Sydney visit in October 1996 was widely seen as a reset for the Princess of Wales as she stepped into a more independent public role.
Many viewed the trip as her first major act of independence after her divorce and she was mobbed by supporters who paid £250-a-head at a gala dinner at Sydney Entertainment Centre.
The event was in support of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute but she left early after the packed venue left little space for her to dance in, standing up an actor who she had been scheduled to dance with in the process, a contemporary ITN News report suggested.
The Australia visit was emotionally charged and politically sensitive, attracting criticism from royal traditionalists who believed she was breaching protocol by traveling while Queen Elizabeth II was on a state visit elsewhere.
Ultimately, though, the tour cemented Diana’s post‑divorce identity as a global humanitarian operating beyond palace constraints.
Meghan and Harry’s Visit to Australia
Australia was the scene of Meghan and Harry’s first royal tour back in 2018 when thousands lined the streets to celebrate the newly wed royals, who had also announced that the duchess was pregnant with their first child, Prince Archie.
On their return to the country next month, all eyes will be on how much the mood in Australia may have changed in the intervening eight years in which they leveled potentially damaging allegations at the monarchy.
Like Diana 30 years earlier, they will visit Sydney and like Diana it is not impossible they may overlap with a trip for the monarch, as King Charles III is currently planning a potential state visit to America to help mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Prince Harry, will undertake a solo engagement in Melbourne, where he is due to deliver a keynote address at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit on workplace mental health.
Inter Edge posted on Instagram: “We are proud to announce that Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, will join the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit as a keynote speaker on workplace mental health.
“Taking place from Wednesday 15 April to Thursday 16 April in Melbourne, the Summit will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, practitioners and advocates to share practical strategies for building psychologically safe, mentally healthy and high-performing workplaces.”
Notably, the Sussexes’ children will not travel with them, their spokesperson confirmed. The couple will be in Australia as private citizens, not representatives of the Crown.
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