This week’s People Magazine cover story is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Nigerian tour. People Mag’s royal editor Simon Perry was invited to cover the trip somewhat exclusively (I think local journalists also got some special access), and Perry got tons of very positive and uplifting stories. You can really feel the Sussexes trying to figure out what works for them and how they can organize these kinds of trips, and what kind of media they should bring in. My hope is that for their next “quasi-royal tour,” they do allow more media access while still finding a way to block the British media specifically. Speaking of the next tour, Prince Harry told Simon Perry that he and Meghan were looking forward to traveling more and that this Nigeria trip would not be their last. Well, Perry did a “diary” piece about the trip and he noted something really interesting:
Having covered numerous royal tours, including three with Prince Harry himself, I can attest that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to Nigeria from May 10 to 13 had all the hallmarks of an official visit, despite not being officially labeled as such. From a dynamic kickoff event focused on mental health at a local school, where both Harry and Meghan delivered inspiring speeches, to heartfelt visits to charitable organizations, every aspect mirrored the essence of royal engagements.
The couple was relaxed in their demeanor, confident in their mission and welcoming. On the first day, I was pleasantly surprised to be so up close, cataloging their every move. “Hot enough for you, Simon?” Harry joked as we adjusted to the 94-degree heat on our first day in Abuja. I said he must be used to it now living in California, but the heat was even tough for him. As we chatted about our flights and jetlag, Meghan said they were “hitting the ground running.”
Four years have passed since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their senior royal roles. Consequently, they navigated this trip without official assistance, yet their impact was indistinguishable from a traditional royal visit. Whether extending a scholarship program through their Archewell Foundation for talented young girls or engaging with military families, their presence radiated joy and purpose, irrespective of their formal royal status.
There will be more travel like Nigeria to come — PEOPLE understands that the Sussexes received additional invitations while they were on their visit. “There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom!” Harry tells PEOPLE. “So we look forward to traveling more…there will always be reasons to meet the people at the heart of our work.”
LOL! “PEOPLE understands that the Sussexes received additional invitations while they were on their visit.” First of all, you know that the Sussexes were invited to come back to Nigeria – they were such a big hit with Nigerians and the government is likely so pleased with how things went and their ability to keep the Sussexes safe and secure. But Perry is definitely saying that other countries got a look at the Nigerian tour and thought “wow, we could do that too.” As I said days ago, Nigeria provided a very good roadmap for how to bring the Sussexes into a country. The invitation came from the Defense Dept/military, the Sussexes and their private security coordinated with the government, they were guaranteed a certain VIP/dignitary level of protection, and wouldn’t you know, the host country gets a huge tourism boost, international headlines and a slice of Sussex sparkle. I’m dying to know which countries have already contacted the Sussexes.
Photos courtesy of Getty, cover courtesy of People.
I think BBC Africa got access, too, and this was picked up here in the UK on BBC TV main news (as well as on their main website). Limited, but there.
The BBC did get access. The BBC Africa journalist Simi Jolaoso tweeted about it. Her reporting made main BBC 1 news 3 nights in a row. CNN Africa correspondent Stephanie Busari has also tweeted about access she got to certain events, including the Women in Power event. Local media were also given access. AP was also given access to certain events. British print media is just mad because they were excluded, so they are insisting only People magazine and Misan got access to events which is not true.
Simi was so great!
There were also Andrew Esiebo from Getty and Akintunde Akinleye Reuters and Marvellous Durowaiye from Reuters. Outside of Simon they seem to have given access to only local West African media and to international media who had African correspondents/photographers assigned to the tour which I love. One of the really problematic things about how so many royal tours work is that they give preference to the rota and at times denigrate and ostracize the local media(see Charles and Camilla’s trip to Kenya a couple years ago when a local journalist actually publicly called out this disgusting behavior). I’m so glad that H&M have followed through on what they said they’d do on sussexroyal.com 4 years ago: bring in more diverse voices to cover them who might not have had the opportunity to before. I wish People hadn’t been involved but I understand that they did need some kind of American presence there to communicate what was going on to their pop culture consuiming American audience and it’s something Harry’s been doing since the first Invictus Games.( I did find it interesting that Hello, who always gets some soft exclusives, and who got some during Harry’s stop in the UK last week, wasn’t there).
I would suggest the British tabloids are not just mad that they didn’t get access, but they’re angry that people who did were African. That’s what’s sticking in their racist craws.
Thrilled that you know so much about which journalists got access. Makes it so much easier to follow *those journalists*.
I think Bernie Bean is also definitely onto something, to the point where it ought to be repeated —
“I would suggest the British tabloids are not just mad that they didn’t get access, but they’re angry that people who did were African. That’s what’s sticking in their racist craws.”
“There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom!” Harry tells PEOPLE.
There’s that zinger again. Sounds like Harry is trolling TOB. Although I don’t think he really keeps up with Bulliam, as Harry himself is too busy doing actual work and making an impact. And H is a hands-on dad.
As to getting invited by other countries (in Africa, I presume) – after seeing all the positive coverage that H&M got, and all the attention it brought to Nigeria, like a well-made global ad campaign – I see why other countries would go for it.
So many Squaddies said they were thinking of going, or that Nigeria had moved up in their list of destinations.
And it would be hugely beneficial for charities too, to have their work presented this way.
I don’t think he was thinking of his brother when he said that lol. He probably just meant that they are dependent on zoom for a lot of correspondence between h&m/ Archewell and the charities they are involved with. But it’s always better to meet in person, and actually be able to see the work on the ground.
@nanea @chloe I agree Harry wasn’t intentionally trolling his brother but that’s still what I got from it. 😂😂😂 After the success of this your I bet Pegs is crying into his cups in a dark corner cuz he’s realizing he won’t be able to be a wfh king and still complete with his brother.
Betcha the People journalist was though! He didn’t have to include that in his reporting!
“There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom”
Meghan said “we’ll be hitting the ground, running.”
I think they trolled Wiliam and Kate with those statements. I really laughed at Meghan’s comment, it was perfect.
One thing that really stood out to me with this trip vs. actual royal visits is the impeccable staff work by Harry and Meghan’s team. Pulling off something like this so flawlessly takes an enormous amount of skill and extreme attention to detail. The kerfuffle with the $200 check made me feel for their team because just like H&M, they can never make a mistake. That’s a lot of stress to carry for your principal and I’m impressed with how well the Archewell and IG teams consistently do their jobs so well. If y’all are reading this, we see you and the work you’re doing behind the scenes!
It makes me really sad when people even on this blog sh*t on their team whenever something small pops out. Imagine, your every move is watched, followed and even a tiny mistake will create global headlines on your employers. I would die from the stress alone.
Same. There’s a distinct lack of grace for human foilbles you see often on certain articles. A lot of us have made mistakes at work, sometimes to detrimental effect too, yet we don’t have a hostile press and armchair quarterbacks telling us how horrible we are at our jobs. They show remarkable grace, and I’m shocked the attrition rate isn’t higher like it would be in the WHPO or something similar.
Sevenblue, I agree. This is the one place on the internet that isn’t overrun with h*ate, and still there’s regular concern tr@lling by people who say they support them.
I can’t figure out if they’re new to the internet or what. That check thing was a good example, so many people warning H and M they better get it together. H and M, who have and will make mistakes, are being stalked by international powers looking for the smallest thing. Even if it has been true, and it wasn’t, why give it fuel over the important work they are doing.
Spoiler: it wasn’t their fault and even the Governor came out to clarify and tell the media to get it together.
The check for $200 was never Archewell’s mistake. The State of CA bungled hundreds of checks, a backlog ensued. Even Gov. Newsom had to come out and apologize for it and set the record straight.
The tabs that ran that story probably knew it was a non starter before they ran it. Because the tabs live to be obscene like that.
Clearly H&M have the real “gold standard” team around them that I’m sure are unbothered by 6 AM emails and don’t spend their workday crying in the supply closet.
I expect this will make KP even more deranged because it’s not just incandescent Bill but all of the trash incompetent, lazy and petty staffers who are being exposed for what they really are.
I WAS JUST THINKING THIS! That maybe an American staff matches Meghan’s American energy, so they can actually keep up at 6 AM. 😀
Their team has good vibes and no doubt treats the people they meet respectfully. Which makes the whole trip easier for everyone. I’ll never forget how the Jamaican newspapers, the Jamaican gleaner?, had videos and wrote articles about how people on William and Kate’s team were treating local journalists. They were on edge and borderline rude. Also there was a podcast from a woman who worked on smartworks with Meghan and she said Meghan was lovely but some of the aides were actually rude. The woman from the podcast was also upset that the papers reported that Meghan didn’t stay long when in fact the opposite was true, that she stayed longer than necessary. All this to say that it must be a relief to be surrounded by professional and supportive people with good vibes. A team they chose as opposed to one given to them.
Actually the team DID NOT make a Mistake…It was not Archewell Foundation team’s fault…Based on how everything is coming out, it seems that ‘Someone’ tried to use Archewell to take the shine off their Nigeria tour.
How Archewell responded, to me, was ‘we will just send another check as we had no idea there was something wrong’ H & M then went and investigated…instead of first saying ‘we will investigate and get back to you’ and now people are trying to imply there was ‘something’ there. That would be how I do it, pay and then investigate NOT ‘investigate’ and then pay.
I do hope there is REAL AG type investigation…
Also, CA governor, Gavin Newsome said “not today!” He went to bat hard for Archewell. He said I hope you make headlines about this as much you did about that.
I know their team didn’t make the mistake, I was just referring to the uproar over the situation as if they had been the ones to make the mistake. They have to be so perfect that they can’t make a mistake because even if someone else in their vicinity make a mistake, they will be attacked for it.
I was truly one of the most disingenuous things I have ever seen, and that’s sort of saying something. If ever a group earned their name, it was the Derangers acting like they have never had a bureaucratic snafu in their entire lives. Over $200. The amount of crowing like an actual gotcha moment had happened was absurd.
Good on Gov. Newsom for shutting it down. I live in California, and I can’t remember him ever doing something like this, so he must have been completely fed up by the British media.
As I was watching this on the weekend I said to myself that every single Invictus country was about to invite Harry and Meghan to visit lol. It’s a great roadmap for them and I look forward to it.
They have so much charisma together it’s breathtaking .
Reading your comment, Tina, made an idea pop into my head – I hope Harry and Meghan are invited to Washington DC as part of its bid to win the next Invictus Games. A visit just like the one to Nigeria – invited by and meetings with government officials, visiting local charities, touring the potential IG sites, all capped off by Harry becoming an American citizen 😆 If we thought Salty Isle heads were exploding after the Nigeria trip, this would be incandescence the likes of which we’ve yet to see
A girl can dream anyway!
If H&M do an IG visit to DC, get ready for the headlines about Senator Meghan and President Meghan again. I just don’t understand why the British tabloids think she’s ambitious to get into politics, or why that’s an insult 🤷♀️
Yes please!
@Pinkosaurus: Because she’s a Black woman, so she must be uppity. And because it’s not “right” for a Black woman to be prominent or a leader. /s
What a precedent that would set! First Nigeria makes Meghan a princess and then the US makes Harry a citizen? Britain would have to offer them their own island to get them to come over lmaoo
I really hope it’s in DC. My daughter lives there and we’ll go to as many events as possible!
“Their presence radiated joy and purpose, irrespective of their formal royal status” and there you have it. Somewhere, William is punching a wall and Charles is whinging at Camilla.
Is was lovely to watch them engage with everyone they met. They were happy and at ease with everyone. I like the shade he sent his brothers way with “ you can only zoom so much and then you have to get out there”.
He’s really fibbing when he says their visit was indistinguishable from other royal tours, unless he specifically means the other royal tours the Sussexes undertook. Because the royal tours with the Leftovers always include: some major blunder, being racist, getting fired to their faces, flinching from the touch of black people, giving pictures of themselves as gifts, drinking crack baby cocktails, taking a personal vacation during the tour, and/or laughing at the singing/dancing/clothing of the different cultures they’re visiting. I saw none of that on this tour, which actually makes it very different to the royal tours this guy has been on before. I wish he’d be more honest.
Lol, so true. Perhaps he means what royal tours should be.
I was thinking that’s what he meant too.
I thought he was saying that officially this wasn’t a royal (British) tour, but H&M did this so well, no one could tell it wasn’t truly a royal tour? Though your comments about all the ways the RF usually makes gaffes weren’t present this time makes me laugh, SussexWatcher!
I got the impression that combined with not being able to tell this wasn’t an official royal tour, Simon Perry was goading certain royals by pointing out how close H&M let him get to what was going on. One of the BM complaints is that H&M (and to a certain extent the royals in general) do not allow much access.
Agreed. This is going to be the new talking point on Salty Isle, going forward, in the hope if they repeat it enough, people will start to believe this is what “royal tours” always look like. Spoiler: They do not.
Charles and Camilla on a red carpet in a rice paddy (?) springs to mind.
It was at the (dust-ridden) Nairobi National Park and Kenyans were, rightfully, p*ssed.
LOL! So the polar opposite of a rice paddy…
Wow, that third paragraph especially. I’m not used to seeing such admiration in the press about H&M. All this “without official assistance.”
lol. When the palace minions lied to the media that H&M want to live private lives, they really thought that they can force H&M into hiding. How are you gonna make Harry, whose whole life has been about the public service and charities, go away? Looking at H&M, I still can’t believe Diana tried to fight all these by herself.
Your last statement has occurred to me too. I think that Harry also said something similar during the interview with Oprah about the thought of his mother having to go through the whole process of extricating herself from the royals and carrying on her good works by herself, and that at least they (the Sussexes) had each other.
Harry and Meghan have global reach that goes beyond the commonwealth. I’m sure they will be equally enthusiastically and warmly received in South Korea and more!
I’m going to guess South Korea, it has mandatory military service and Heart of Invictus revealed the need for advocacy for veterans with disabilities. I’ll also be surprised if Lesotho isn’t on the list, but he doesn’t really need an official invite seeing as his co-founding patron of Sentebale is Prince Seeiso. I’ll be very surprised if there isn’t a trip to Lesotho in 2025. It’s been a while. 2026 is the 20th anniversary so I can see that happening then for sure.
These are great guesses – I hope that they come true!
It warms my heart to see that Lady Diana’s youngest son, has a charity that has been going for almost 20 years. He is not even 40 yet. What a passionate committed fellow.
“… yet their impact was indistinguishable from a traditional royal visit”
Au contraire, mon friar. The Sussex visit actually accomplished something more than the royal’s standard “pose for photo op and then move on to the next photo op” foolishness.
Wounded veteran’s needs, mental health, even Nigerian fashion (!) was brought to the forefront and generated world wide interest.
But sure, let’s pretend the British royals accomplish something other than getting fired on camera or making fools of themselves by constantly sticking their foot in their mouth.
Wills will be on a downward spiral if he learns this news.
And “There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom!” OUCHY!
Lastly, I said it yesterday, H&M are embraced and people want to work with them. Which adds further insult to injury for Wills and Chuck because those two have to be embraced. And they understand the power that comes with genuinely being liked and embraced – like Princess Diana was.
I saw a clip of Rebecca English complaining about how there was only one journalist from an American publication invited and that journalist was very pro-sussex. So clearly she was referring to Simon Perry from People, and while he wrote great things about the tour bc the tour actually was great, there’s never been a feeling that People is especially pro-sussex. If anything, we think it’s happy to print articles with sources upon sources from the palace. So it’s just funny to now see that Rebecca English thinks it’s too friendly to the Sussexes. Although from her perspective, anything less than the British tabloid narrative is considered too friendly, I guess?
Interesting how they ignore the fact that BBC Africa journalist Simi Jolaoso also got access ( she tweeted about the access she received) and reported on it every day on BBC News. As did many Nigerian media outlets. Do these people not count as journalists and are they all pro Sussex?
But it seems English was specifically complaining about the journalists from American publications, so that wouldn’t include anyone from BBC Africa etc.
Of course, then you have to ask why does English care who goes from American publications? Was she hoping for some inside scoops since the rota was blatantly excluded?
So RE was implying that the Sussexes only allowed one writer and one photographer, Misan, to cover the whole trip. It was being used to show how controlling the Sussexes were being with their pr. It was misleading and disingenuous bc the Sussexes clearly allowed local coverage and local photographers. Which Becky conveniently didn’t mention bc it didn’t fit the narrative of the Sussexes only wanting sussex-friendly reporters. If the Sussexes had wanted, they could have excluded local journalists or limited them but they didn’t do that at all. Technically, any of those local reporters could have reported something critical of the Sussexes.
Meanwhile one article was published mentioning that Harry has more swagger than Wills, and for the past week, the DM has had to paper over that comment with articles referring to Wills as “hunky” and “handsome…” Are we really going to talk about a publication being too friendly?
Yes exactly @ms.cope, RE complaining about a publication being too friendly is hilarious coinsidering how she writes about making eyes at William as if she’s in a romance novel.
@julia, the way they overlook the local journalists is really off-putting. Simi Jolaosa did a really good job for the BBC. Does the rota have some sort of competition with the local journalists when they go on tours? They act like they own the coverage. In regards to Simon Perry, I think they’re mad that he was invited to travel with them, which is what they usually get to do. Rebecca English is the gatekeeper of the rota. Omid Scobie wrote about how they tried to get online publications included in the rota but she had that idea nixed. So the ultimate gatekeeper is now mad that people are gatekeeping against her. Considering the fact that she’s been named as someone who used illegal means to get private info on Harry, she shouldn’t be surprised. So it’s not really gatekeeping so much as refusing to allow unethical journalists.
Well based on comments from the local journalists in Kenya during Charles Windsor’s visit (I ❤ that, lol) they felt they were mistreated. They were not allowed to eat the food offered to the press pack traveling with C&C, etc. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rota rats look down on local journalists, especially from African countries. I think it was a local journalist that took that horrible picture of Camilla sitting in the car in Kenya which captured her essence perfectly, lol. They probably published it as revenge, so good for them.
Bless the photographer who got that pic❤️😂
Normally, yes ,the Rota get preference over local journalists. They do look down and cut out local journalists.
The Sussexes changed that and made sure local journalists were given a chance.
Generally speaking, there are different levels of access. usually the locals are given regional press passes while Rota have permanent passes. They will often be put in different areas.
Well duh Rebecca they’re not going to invite their enemies
She’s probably mad that People didn’t ask her to do the reporting 😆
I look forward to future visits. I think there will always be a mix of invictus and archewell work on these trips.
One thing about being hosted by the military through Invictus is that security won’t really be an issue. Militaries have that down pat and would not want anything happening to Meghan and Harry on their watch.
The Truth hurts Billy.
“There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom!” Harry tells PEOPLE.“
My only quibble with giving People some exclusive access is that Simon Perry is a royal reporter and will report from that perspective: “Having covered numerous royal tours, including three with Prince Harry himself, I can attest that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to Nigeria from May 10 to 13 had all the hallmarks of an official visit, despite not being officially labeled as such.” Also, they did not hesitate to repeat false information about Archewell without doing proper checking in a blaring headline.
I’d love it if enough of those invitations were from various Commonwealth countries that KC would always be in his son’s shadow if he (or his heir) ever bothered to travel
He’ll get to watch Harry and Meghan all over the news in Canada this winter. There will be no escaping the coverage.
So lovely to see how welcomed they are. I think they really symbolize what the rest of the nobility should be evolving into — shedding the historical trappings of colonialism while still showing altruism and leadership around the world. It’s evident that that’s the way the former “colonies” want to engage.
My guess is Botswana will be next. I hope it is!
If I had to guess who those countries were I’d say probably Ghana, Kenya, Gabon, and Colombia. I saw some rumbling online this week about Ghana possibly wanting them there and we know that Meghan met up with a Kenyan senator at IG last year who is passionate about eradicating period povertly like Meghan and that she expressed a want for Kenya to join IG while she was there in support of team Nigeria.
In addition, it came out yesterday that the First Lady of Gabon was in Nigeria for Meghan’s women leadership conference on Saturday and she was pictured with the Sussexes at the airport with the Nigerian Tourism Minister. Lastly, I imagine that Colombia who joined the IG at the same time as Nigeria might also see how this went and want Harry to come visit their team and other injured soldiers as well.
I found the composition of the picture with the first lady of Gabon interesting. They all seemed to be posing separately. There was no connection between them, except Harry and Meghan together, physically, or in the expressions on their faces. I’m not sure, but is Gabon rather unstable at the moment?
I’m really going to have to ration my popcorn if more Sussex tours are in the works.
It’s hilarious watching Charles, William and the rota cry.
Even if your country isn’t fond of colonial reminders (who would be??), repudiating the BRF and welcoming the exiles sends a VERY strong message to them: we have options, and we are exercising them with who WE want, not who is imposed upon us. Nigeria chose H&M, and just LOOK at all the favorable coverage that ensued. SHOTS FIRED! Not from H&M, but because of them~and the rota roaches and their puppets understand EXACTLY how significant that is,, and are scrambling for cover when the lights turn on.