The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have posed for selfies and done gardening with hospital patients and medics and helped veterans' children make pottery on the first of a four-day Australian tour. The couple - no longer working royals and visiting in a private capacity - will combine visits to charitable causes, which included a women's refuge on Tuesday, alongside money-making events. The schedule also reflects the commercial aspect of the trip, with Prince Harry due to give a keynote speech at a summit where tickets cost up to A$2,400 (£1,260) per person.
Meghan will hold an "in-person conversation" at a women-only "girls weekend" in Sydney hosted by the producers of the Her Best Life podcast. It is unclear how much Prince Harry and Meghan are being paid for the commercial events. The couple landed at Melbourne airport around 06:30 on Tuesday ( Monday) on a commercial Qantas flight from Los Angeles.
It is Harry and Meghan's first time in Australia since 2018 when they spent around nine days in the country as part of an intense tour just a few months after their marriage. While that trip saw large crowds gather to greet them wherever they went, this time there are no events planned to meet members of the public. After stepping down as working royals in January 2020 and giving up their His and Her Royal Highness (HRH) titles, Prince Harry and Meghan are visiting as private citizens and say that the trip is privately funded.
But there are questions over whether Australian taxpayers are picking up any of the bill for policing during the visit. The visit will take in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, and while charitable causes, issues and organisations close to their hearts are central to the visit, as private citizens, the couple are free to personally profit from the trip. At the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, hundreds of people gathered in the foyer for a glimpse of Harry and Meghan on Tuesday.
The couple talked animatedly to children being treated there, and their parents - posing for selfies giving hugs and shaking hands. The duke and duchess then met with other onlookers - mainly staff and patients with their families. Among the crowd was Emily Burke and her three-year-old daughter Phoebe who had just been discharged from an overnight stay.
"We just found out they were coming so we hung around," Burke told the BBC, adding that "Meghan came and had a little chat with Phoebe... she was commenting on her Bluey slippers". At the hospital, Harry and Meghan took part in a garden therapy session with patients, smelling plants and flowers. Asked if he would like to take some gumtree home, Harry joked: "I would, but I think I'd probably get arrested at some point." Meghan also visited a women's refuge in Melbourne, where she served plates of frittata to people at the centre.
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