Prince Harry and Meghan's 'non-royal' tour of Australia program revealed

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in Melbourne today for what is promising to be a high-profile, non-royal tour that will look remarkably like a royal tour.

Across four days, Prince Harry and Meghan will visit Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, carrying out engagements linked with community resilience, support for the armed forces and mental health.

After weeks of rumours and secrecy, the couple's full program can now be revealed and what it shows is that Prince Harry and Meghan's visit ticks all the boxes of a typical royal tour but it will be remarkably different from the last time the couple was in Australia eight years ago.

How times have changed

Back then, in 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan were here representing the British royal family and were two of the The Firm's most popular working members.

It was their first major tour of the Commonwealth and they came to Australia months after their wedding in support of the Invictus Games, which were held in Sydney.

Their 76 engagements spanned 16 days with stops in Sydney, Dubbo, Melbourne and K'gari (Fraser Island) before they travelled to Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

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We now know Prince Harry and Meghan's last visit to Australia was the catalyst for the couple leaving their places as senior working royals in 2020.

Behind the scenes, they were far from the happy couple presented to the media and the public at the time.

Meghan didn't want to be in Australia and allegedly "hated every second of it". The duchess was also said to be bewildered she was not getting paid for the highly-publicised tour.

In 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping back for a life of financial freedom in the US.

Six years on, they are coming here today as private citizens, not representing the UK government or the British royal family.

The visit is being paid for privately, with some of their security being footed by the Australian taxpayer. Australian Federal Police, and other officers, will support the couple's private security detail from the US, as per standard procedure when high-profile guests come here.

For an idea of just how much it might cost, Prince Harry and Meghan's four-day tour of Colombia in 2024 set the South American country back almost $87,000.

The figure included internal transport and security. Prince Harry and Meghan paid for their own flights, accommodation and general expenses.

At the time, sources told The Telegraph UK the cost covered an eight-day period as it included four days of advance visits from staff including security and logistics teams.

What they have planned this time

Prince Harry and Meghan's spokesperson previously told nine.com.au their program would allow the couple to "to take part in a number of private, business, and philanthropic engagements".

Engagements will focus on community resilience, support for the armed forces and mental health.

Prince Harry and Meghan have continued to support such issues since stepping back as working royals, using their new lives in the US to back various charities, organisations and projects that closely align with their interests and beliefs.

Here is where they will be, and when:

Day one: Melbourne

This morning Prince Harry and Meghan will begin their Australian tour in Melbourne at the Royal Children's Hospital, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and again in 2011 after extensive renovations. The site was also visited by Prince Harry's parents, Charles and Diana, during their 1985 tour.

The couple will undertake solo engagements too.

Tuesday will see Meghan visit a women's homeless shelter and meet with women who have experienced family violence.

Their final event of the day will be at the Australian National Veterans' Art Museum.

Day two: Melbourne and Canberra

On Wednesday Prince Harry will embark on a number of engagements without his wife.

He'll visit the AFL's Western Bulldogs team to highlight its Movember campaign, founded in Melbourne in 2003, which promotes men's health. Harry's visit is expected to focus on mental health support for fathers.

The duke will then fly to Canberra, where he will tour the Australian War Memorial, meet indigenous veterans, attend the daily Last Post ceremony and a reception for Invictus Australia.

Prince Harry will return to Melbourne for events on Thursday with Meghan.

Day three: Melbourne

The couple will reunite for a busy day in Melbourne on Thursday, beginning with the Scar Tree Walk in the city, where they will learn about the local Aboriginal history, which begins at Federation Square.

Prince Harry and Meghan will then visit mental health organisation batyr, which focuses on preventative education and early intervention in young people to reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking.

Prince Harry's big event of the tour will be the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne, where he is the keynote speaker.

While the event runs across two days, Harry will speak at the summit on Thursday afternoon.

Tickets were originally priced at $1978 but they have since been slashed by 50 per cent to around $997.

Meghan is scheduled to attend with Prince Harry in a supportive role only.

Day four: Sydney

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be in Sydney for the final, official, day of their tour.

They will sail on Sydney Harbour with team Invictus Australia in support of its bid to bring the Invictus Games back in 2031. The event was held in Sydney in 2018 during Prince Harry and Meghan's first visit here.

In the evening, the couple will visit Allianz Stadium to watch rugby team New South Wales Waratahs take on Moana Pasifika, later meeting the players in the dressing room.

Throughout the visit, the duchess will hold private business meetings as she prepares to launch her lifestyle brand As Ever in Australia.

According to Australian intellectual property office records, Meghan's trademark was accepted in June, 2025, under the description "fancy". Current products include jam, flower sprinkles, candles and wine.

Meghan will also make a brief appearance at a women's-only retreat in Coogee hosted by the Her Best Life podcast where tickets start at $2699, while the VIP experience costs $3199.

The event is billed as a 'girls weekend like no other' and will see Meghan speak at at an in-conversation session before attending a dinner.

At the weekend, the event organiser Gemma O'Neill described Meghan as "so divine" after having a Zoom call with her ahead of the tour.

"It couldn't have been any more, kind of, real," O'Neill said.

"I just immediately loved chatting to her. She was like, 'let's just have a real chat, woman to woman, let's just go for it'."

The event, limited to just 300 tickets, is yet to sell-out despite huge publicity around it.

How can the public see Harry and Meghan?

Prince Harry and Meghan had been planning to do two walkabouts to meet the public in Melbourne and Sydney, according to reports.

But both – which had not been officially announced – were cancelled when details of their interary were leaked to the media.

Security surrounding the couple will be tight and they will be protected by Australian Federal Police and other officers, along with their own private security detail coming from the US.

Because they now private citizens, and not representing the British royal family, there will be no public meet and greet.

Such an event would also require a much larger level of taxpayer-funded security, something the couple's team have been at pains to stress won't happen.

There is also the optics of how a walkabout would look when Harry and Meghan are no longer working royals.

In 2018, affection for Prince Harry and Meghan soared when they announced their pregnancy within hours of landing in Sydney.

Crowds at the Sydney Opera House for their first walkabout of the tour were huge and the media coverage of their visit was largely positive.

This time, however, Prince Harry and Meghan are two of the least popular members of the royal family, according to a YouGov poll in February.

A rapturous welcome this time around is not guaranteed.

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