The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have officially returned home to Los Angeles following their visit to Australia.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attended a series of engagements in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra. The focus was on mental health, community resilience and support for veterans and their families.
There were no planned opportunities for the public to meet the couple. The Sussex spokesman said this was to “minimise disruption to members of the public and host organisations”. However, both the Duke and Duchess appeared at ticketed events.
You can read up on their official itinerary here.
What events did Prince Harry and Meghan attend?
The Melbourne leg of their tour centres on frontline services, youth mental health, community organisations and commercial engagements.
After the couple visited the children’s hospital, Meghan visited a women’s homeless and family violence shelter.
This is the first time the former Royals have visited Australia since their successful royal tour in 2018. The visit coincided with the announcement of Meghan’s pregnancy with their first child.
The couple returned under significantly different circumstances. Their office has stated the visit is privately funded. However, media reports that Australian taxpayers covered the cost of additional police security for the tour. A Change.org petition rejecting taxpayer-funded support for the visit had attracted 46,000 signatures
The schedule of events officially ends on Friday night, when the couple will attend a rugby match in Sydney, and Meghan will speak at a private wellness event in Sydney. Her appearance, advertised as an “in-person conversation with one of the most discussed, most written about, and most fiercely herself women on the planet right now”, is part of a two-day retreat in a luxury hotel in Coogee. Tickets start at $2,699.
Day 1: Melbourne
The crowd warmly welcomes Prince Harry and Meghan
Hundreds of patients and families eagerly lined up to meet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. The crowd cheered as Prince Harry and Meghan greeted patients, sharing hugs and brief chats.
One patient, Lily, 4, presented the couple with a hand-drawn sign that said, “Welcome Harry and Meghan” and gave a flower to the duchess.
Harry hugged Christina Parkes, whose 13-year-old daughter, Adelaide, is a patient at the hospital. She said it “means an enormous amount” to have the couple visit Australia.
The couple met an oncology patient named Hamish, 17, who discussed AFL with Prince Harry, and Maya, also 17, who said the hospital does “amazing” work.
Maya told the Press Association she was excited to meet the former royals, and that her grandmother was a big fan of them.
“It means a lot. Just to know that they’re worried about us, they love us, just to know that they love Australia and Melbourne, it’s really nice,” she said.
Meghan visits a women’s refuge
After the meet and greet, Prince Harry and Meghan took part in a sensory garden therapy session.
Prince Harry was asked if he would like to take a gum tree home. He replied that he would, “but I think I’d probably get arrested at some point.”
Following the hospital visit, Meghan went to a women’s homeless and domestic violence refuge where she served frittata to residents. Once everybody had been served, Meghan sat down to eat with the residents. She also explained that her jet lag hadn’t quite hit yet.
Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, visited the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1985. At the time, they were on a visit to the state of Victoria.
With PA
Day 2: Melbourne and Canberra
The Duke and Duchess continued their visit in Melbourne, but today, they tried their hand at some AFL!
Meeting with veterans and their families
They started the day at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM) in Southbank. While there, Meghan and Harry took part in a model-making activity with veterans and their families. From the photos, it looks like Meghan was making a flamingo (or perhaps an emu?).
Tanya Johnston, founder of ANVAM, showed the Duke and Duchess an art exhibit by veterans, including army reservist Keith Ross, who was also in attendance.
Harry shows his footie skills
Footie fans and royalists both delighted in Prince Harry demonstrating his own footie skills at a Movember event at Witten Oval in Melbourne. The Prince even held up a Western Bulldogs scarf. He was also presented with jerseys for his children, Archie and Lilibet, by the club.
The Duke joined Dr Zac Seidler, Global Director of Research at the Movember Institute, for a discussion on the realities of modern fatherhood.
“Becoming a dad makes you think differently about everything. You want to be the best version of yourself for your kids, but there’s no manual for it.”
“That can be confronting at times,” Harry continued. “Because you’re figuring it out as you go.”
According to Movember’s research, three in five dads don’t discuss their mental health during their partner’s pregnancy or early parenthood.
“There is no version of where you can bottle something up, and it just disappears. It builds, it snowballs – and you can get to a point where you’re no use to anybody, and that’s a place you never want to be,” Harry commented.
“For me, it became about doing the work on myself – almost cleansing the past – so I could show up as the best version of myself for my kids. You don’t have to wait for a crisis to do that work; it can be about getting ahead of it.”
“You’re not alone. This [Movember] report shows so many dads are feeling the same things – it’s messy, it’s a rollercoaster, and there are moments where you question yourself, but we shouldn’t judge ourselves for that.”
Prince Harry takes part in a smoking ceremony in Canberra
Prince Harry, unaccompanied by Meghan, visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, where he took part in an Aboriginal smoking ceremony at the “For Our Country” memorial, honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service personnel. He laid a wreath, met Indigenous veterans and listened to a Welcome to Country by Ngunnawal/Gomeroi man Michael Bell.
Dressed in a suit with military medals, Harry also toured a gallery dedicated to Captain Reg Saunders, the first Indigenous Australian commissioned as an army officer. Travelling solo without the Duchess of Sussex, he flew commercially from Melbourne, surprising passengers and crew.
Stunned members of the public waved and said “Hi Harry” as he left Canberra Airport, as reported by Sam Hall, Press Association in Canberra.
Meghan joins MasterChef Australia!
The Duchess of Sussex stayed behind in Melbourne to be a guest judge on this season of MasterChef Australia!
As the Duchess is a keen foodie, as evident by her Netflix show With Love, Meghan and her lifestyle brand As Ever, she’s sure to have plenty of advice for this season’s crop of cooks.
She’s joining a stacked panel of guest judges from Robert Irwin to Jimmy Barnes, and Maggie Beer AO to Rick Stein.
Read more here about the guest judges this season.
Day 3: Melbourne
Meghan says she is the “most-trolled person in the entire world”
Back together once again in Melbourne, Prince Harry and Meghan went on a guided tour of the Scar Tree Walk in Melbourne. They met with Indigenous leaders who guided them on the walk and shared their traditional tools and practices with them.
Afterwards, they attended a mental health support event for Batyr at Swinburne University in Hawthorn.
At the end, Prince Harry praised Australia’s social media ban, calling it “epic” and Meghan shared her own harrowing experiences on social media.
“For now, 10 years, every day for 10 years, I have been bullied and attacked. And I was the most trolled person in the entire world. I’m still here.”
Read more about what Meghan had to say at the event here.
Prince Harry shares how he felt “lost” in leadership
Prince Harry also returned to Melbourne to speak at the InterEdge Summit. He spoke candidly about his thoughts on leadership, even going into detail about he at times from “lost, betrayed, or completely powerless”.
He also confessed that following his mother’s death, he did not want to do his job. But asked himself what his mother would want him to do with his public profile and platform.
Read more about his speech here and the event here.
Day 4: Sydney
The final day of their Australia visit is here! The Duke and Duchess arrived in Sydney on 17 April 2026.
Prince Harry and Meghan meet survivors and heroes of the Bondi Beach Terror Attack
The Bondi Beach Terror Attack was one of the most harrowing experiences in Sydney’s recent history. The tragedy was felt the world over. The Duke and Duchess made a point to visit with the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club to both praise the heroes of the day, but also to meet with survivors of the attack.
They spoke with Elon Zizer, 40, who survived being shot numerous times while shielding his daughter on that terrible day.
“It’s an honour to meet the duke and duchess,” he said to the Press Association. “It’s very beautiful that they’ve come and made an effort to meet us. It’s very special – it makes us feel heard.”
Also in attendance were representatives of the Sydney Jewish Museum, who are curating an exhibit to memorialise the attack. They showed the Duke and Duchess artefacts from the new exhibition, including rescue boats.
Johnathan Botts, a lifeguard who responded to the Bondi Beach terror attacks, said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit “means a lot”.
“They’ve taken time out of their pretty brief visit to Australia to visit the site and meet with some of the people that were involved and a lot of the people who are affected.”
“It was very much a team effort,” Johnathan said to Press Association about their response to the attack. “We had about 50 people at a Christmas party upstairs here at the surf club. We unfortunately witnessed the whole shooting massacre unfolding in front of our eyes. As soon as the shooting stopped, a large number of 40 or 50 people grabbed all of the first aid equipment we could find in the club and ran out there and assisted victims”
Prince Harry and Meghan meet well-wishers at Sydney Opera House
Among the fans and media present to greet (and take a photo with) the famous couple was a woman who showed Harry a framed photo of him as a child with her mother, Daphne Dunn. Harry looked incredibly touched, and he held his hand to his chest after holding the woman’s hand in greeting. Meghan then came over to meet the woman and looked taken aback at how adorable the photo of her beloved “H”.
Afterwards, Harry and Meghan were gifted their very own Australian thongs with “G’day Hazza” and “G’day Megs” on them. So they are officially Aussie now!
The couple then were taken on a sailing cruise around the harbour with the Making Waves Foundation with the Invictus Community.
Meghan gives talk at “girls’ weekend retreat”
One of the most talked about moments of the Duke and Duchess’s trip to Australia was Meghan’s talk at the InterContinental Coogee Beach Hotel’s “Her Best Life” event.
One of the reasons it sparked discourse was the cost of the tickets, which were £1,400 per ticket.
Prince Harry also made a surprise appearance at the event.
An attendee shared that Meghan didn’t really speak about her former life as an official royal, instead, according report in the Sydney Morning Herald she spoke about her current projects.
“It was more about her [Netflix] series, books, what she’s doing, what’s coming up,” she said.
After the talk, the attendees had a three-course meal, but those who splurged on the VIP tickets had a photo opportunity with Meghan. Afterwards, Meghan and Harry left for the Allianz Stadium.
Closing the visit the Allianz Stadium
Following their sailing sojourn, the Duke and Duchess attended the Super Rugby Pacific match at the Allianz Stadium. They also met with players of both teams, the NSW Waratahs and Moana Pasifika, after the game.
Following their return from Australia, the Duchess shared a touching tribute to her Instagram writing, “Australia, you have our hearts.”
