‘Palace sources’ are still crying about the Sussexes’ ‘outrageous’ Australian tour

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex received such a great reception in Australia, I predicted that the royal courts and British media would crash out for at least a full month. That prediction keeps panning out. “Palace sources” are still, somehow, screaming and crying about a five-day visit which ended three weeks ago. But Meghan’s outfits! Merching! Pseudo-royal tour! They promised not to be half-in! Their titles!! THeY pRoMIsEd!! You’d think that “palace sources” would realize that there’s no way to put this toothpaste back in the tube – everyone saw that Harry and Meghan are still popular, everyone saw that the royals were idiots for how they treated Harry and Meghan, and everyone saw that H&M are free to do whatever they want without the royal peanut gallery chiming in. From Emily Andrews’ piece in Woman & Home:

[The Sussexes’] ‘royal tour’ to Australia two weeks ago looked, well… extremely royal. And while they have denied that the trip was to seek publicity, they certainly found it. They were feted at a children’s hospital in Melbourne, Meghan served lunch at a women’s refuge, Harry talked about fatherhood and mental health at an Australian rules football club, they sailed round iconic Sydney Harbour and Harry donned his medals for a sombre Last Post ceremony and wreath-laying at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. It was a veritable royal-tour bingo full house. Except there was also money to be made.

Ahead of the tour, much was made of their paid-for speaking engagements – Harry at a mental-health summit (although aides later insisted he didn’t receive a fee) and Meghan at a women’s retreat, earning her an estimated £130,000.

But, as became clear, this was the tip of the iceberg for Meghan’s money-making plan – perhaps explaining why she changed clothes so many times, had so many photo opportunities and was even a guest judge on MasterChef Australia. Hours after she was meeting cancer sufferers and serving food to homeless women, it was revealed that Meghan was ‘merching’ the very clothes off her back via a new AI celebrity fashion portal that she is now investing in. Not just her £660 Karen Gee dress (an Australian designer, of course), but her £575 Real Fine Studio earrings and even her Christian Dior shoes.

Every time someone buys an item, the site gets a 10-25% cut – with Meghan receiving half. I’m not sure ‘tacky’ even begins to cover it. And it certainly explains why this initially ‘private’ and ‘low-key’ visit turned into a media circus. Meghan had to be seen to be believed – and sell her clothes!

Her page on the OneOff platform, where she is billed as ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’, features dozens of pictures of her in recent months, many pointedly showing her hand-in-hand with the late Queen’s grandson (still fifth in line to the throne), and all with links to buy her outfits. Lest we forget (and, of course, recollections do vary), the late Queen said the Sussexes could not be ‘half in, half out’ royals because working royals cannot earn their own money (or merch their status), in order to preserve the clear blue water between public service and personal gain.

Despite the couple’s denial that the trip was for publicity, at Buckingham Palace there were eye-rolls and heavy sighs about the predictability of it all. One Palace source said, “It’s pretty outrageous behaviour, particularly in a realm where the King is Head of State, to drum up all this publicity for their commercial endeavours with royal-tour choreography. The whole point about being a working royal is that they do it for others and for public service, not their bank balance.”

So is it time they were stripped of their royal titles?

[From Woman & Home]

Outrageous behavior? To mix charity and commercial work as private citizens? Gasp! But the important part is this: “particularly in a realm where the King is Head of State…” As I said at the time, the crashouts were epic because Harry and Meghan dared to step foot in a British realm. Not only that, they went to Australia, the country which Prince William and Kate have refused to visit for over a decade. Instead of simply acknowledging that Will and Kate are lazy bums, these people have created this whole-ass coping mechanism of “but but but Meghan’s clothes, how dare she make money!”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Her Best Life’s Instagram.

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30 Responses to “‘Palace sources’ are still crying about the Sussexes’ ‘outrageous’ Australian tour”

  1. Julia says:

    All the working royals receive millions for a few hours work at week. Whether it’s from Duchies that really should belong to the State or from taxpayers. Are you telling me any of them would do it for free? I don’t believe a single one of them do it purely for public service.

  2. Shiela Kerr says:

    Happy the trip was very successful. All the noise surrounding this trips speaks to how successful it was and it showed the UK gutter press that many do not believe the vile noise they spew. They tried hard to sabotage this trip from day one and the majority of the Australian public did not buy into it

  3. Beth says:

    QEIi gave her permission for them to earn an income AND pursue their own charitable interests as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They agreed not to use their legally retained HRHs publicly, which they don’t. Despite others like Beatrice, Eugenie and Prince & Princess Michael of Kent doing so. You’d think Andrews would be aware of this 🤔

  4. anna says:

    take away anne’s titles first then as her son was out there selling milk!!! using his titles first.

    honestly – they just love complaining. I wish someone would bet these reporters to not mention harry and meghan for a month. they would rather die.

    • Joanne says:

      Isn’t Anne’s daughter, Zara selling rain jackets now? There sure is a different standard for Harry and Meghan.

  5. ShazBot says:

    I think they have to keep lying about half-in because if people realized you could do a “royal tour” and not actually cost the taxpayers a ton of money, that should be it for the model.
    Harry and Meghan paid for their own travel, clothes and expenses instead of billing Australia for it the way the royals do. So they’re not half-in because they aren’t taking any money from the public purse.
    The royals on the other hand, do take money from the public purse and they do also do it for their own publicity. Every single thing they do is for their own publicity. That’s why Emily has a job, and she knows it.

  6. ecsmom says:

    “the late Queen’s grandson” says it all. Meghan does not even have ownership of her own son, the crown does. Truly the whole institutions is entitled slavery and they are mad as hornets they got away.

    • Magdalena says:

      “The late Queen’s grandson” = Prince Harry. Emily Andrews joins a LONG line of bitter white women who are simply LIVID that Princess Meghan dares to walk hand-in-hand with her own HUSBAND.

    • Harla says:

      She was referring to Harry not Archie. The way it’s worded though sounds like Meghan was doing something untoward instead of just holding hands with her husband.

    • ecsmom says:

      thank you Magdalena and Harla – I had misread that and was gobsmacked by it all.

      It does seem the woman can’t even put Harry’s name near Meghan, you are right about the jealousy and the nefarious inferences.

  7. Robin Webb says:

    “Hand-in-hand with the late Queen’s grandson who is still 5th in line to the throne.” You mean her Husband? They sound like Meghan is Harry’s latest GF.

    • Magdalena says:

      These are the same people who GUSH whenever William’s hand hovers near Kate’s back just before he shoves her forward or out of the way. Then it’s a sign of TRUE royal love, etc., etc. 😀

    • Harla says:

      As I noted above, the wording is deliberate and designed to sound like Meghan is doing something untoward.

      • Miranda says:

        Isn’t she, though? Just look at her, smugly inhaling and exhaling like that, in the presence of the grandson of the world’s chattiest corpse. It’s a travesty!

      • windyriver says:

        “…the world’s chattiest corpse.” Ain’t that the truth! Love it.

    • Dee(2) says:

      They still see her as someone who has ensnared and stolen Harry from them. They hope that he’ll come to his senses soon and if not divorce Meghan to marry them, at least marry someone that looks like them.

      That’s why they get in such a dander when she refers to him as her husband, and he refers to her as his wife. They want to pretend that she’s just a jumpoff after 10 years. I’ll never forget Dickie Arbiter saying that she was just a fling, like he would have any idea, when the news of their relationship broke.

  8. YankeeDoodles says:

    To quote the splendid Phoebe Waller-Bridge, she’s as mad as a bag of bees.

  9. Miranda says:

    If these people didn’t go into hysterics and insist that every overseas trip the Sussexes make is a pseudo-royal tour, would the public think of it as such? Because I’m pretty sure most people just think, “wealthy, socially-conscious couple who have found a way to do good while also making savvy investments and earning a living”. The RR are the ones pushing the bullshit “royal tour” narrative, not Harry and Meghan.

  10. Dee(2) says:

    The way that they try to console themselves that the only reason people are interested in Harry and Meghan it’s because of those titles is just sad at this point. Why would the titles matter to these people for Harry and Meghan, but it doesn’t engender interest in people higher up in the hierarchy? Also, its not like people don’t realize that he’s on the outs with his family. So they know that they can’t utilize his title holding to ingratiate themselves with the BRF.

    And the way they act like earning money is shameful is so weird. More people have to earn money than have inherited it, I don’t understand this narrative. And it’s not about how she’s earning the money. They didn’t think that they should have Netflix deals because they didn’t have any experience as producers.

    Harry shouldn’t be able to write a book because he shouldn’t be able to talk about his life experiences because he has to mention other people. And Meghan shouldn’t have been allowed to write a children’s book because she was stealing opportunities from others. Meghan shouldn’t be able to have a podcast, or be able to do lifestyle branding ,because she’s not a culinary expert or broadcaster. There’s literally nothing that they have done that they find to be, an appropriate way for them to earn money.

    I actually long for the day that they try to pull those titles. Just so Harry and Meghan can show up at an event somewhere and get a standing ovation, or huge crowds. Next they’ll try to convince themselves that being in the line of succession is why people are interested in them or being legally acknowledged as Charles’s son.

  11. Lady Digby says:

    What is outrageous is the PoWs taking home or homes £23 million duchy income each year and barely working 7 months of the year and refusing to earn his keep. The critics are really mad because the Oz reception for Harry and Meghan was so positive despite the years long hate campaign. They are outshining the heir because he’s too frightened to undertake royal tours anymore in case he gets fired again by another Commonwealth PM live on TV!!

  12. anna says:

    also! the summit they attended just released something confirming that harry turned down a fee so was not paid. he was offered payment and said no. so their whole thing that they made a ton of money is untrue, although will make the royal reporters even more crazy because now they are even more confused about where harry and meghan’s money comes from (because they refuse to consider the actual investments and things they have publicised – Meghan was in the nytimes talking about her dolphin investment strategy)

  13. jais says:

    Oh well. Cry more. Take the dang titles then. They’re still members of the royal family. It is what it is. The outrage is recycled and dull at this point. Are they even getting that many clicks from this rinse and repeat narrative anymore. It’s boring.

    • QuiteContrary says:

      Soooooooo boring.

      And so are W&K. It’s not the Sussexes’ fault that they are more interesting and charismatic than the left-behinds.

  14. TheWigletOfWails says:

    Emily sounds so bitter in this piece. The irony of her mentioning “recollections may vary” when she has a reputation of reporting events before they’ve happened (iykyk). They keep reporting that Meghan was paid for the retreat when it’s been said ad nauseam that she wasn’t, repeating this lie over and over isn’t going to make it true.

  15. windyriver says:

    I’m surprised these people think the public even knows what a typical “royal tour” is at this point. What royals have been doing them since TQ died? Will and Kate haven’t done anything in what, four years? Charles wasn’t traveling after his cancer diagnosis, has only been getting back into traveling slowly, and Camilla has bugged out (or sat in the car) a couple of times, as she just did for the Bermuda leg of the recent visit. Anything Anne, Sophie or Edward do, gets little or no coverage from the press. Too damn bad for the rest of them that Harry and Meghan have been the only ones out there the last few years – paying the bulk of their expenses themselves – using their positions to highlight various issues, and with a philanthropic focus to their work that goes way beyond what the RF defines as a “royal tour”, which, by comparison, was always paid for either by UK taxpayers or those of the countries the royals honored with their presence.

  16. Angied says:

    Emily Andrews wrote this article the same time Zara is at a Buckingham Palace garden party today. She’s not a working royal so why was she invited. I thought these things were only for working royals that’s what they told Harry and Meghan. Her and her brother mooch off of their connections to the” working royals” all the time. So does Beatrice and Eugenie. I guess the Daily-fail is the only one allowed to make money off of the clothes that royals wear. Meghan cut out the middle man and they are super angry. I guess they can still make money off of Kate Cuties. 🤣🤣🤣

  17. tamsin says:

    It’s been confirmed that Harry DID NOT receive a fee for InterEdge Summit and I think the host of the women’s retreat said that Meghan DID NOT a fee, rather it was a favour arranged by mutual friend, namely Marcus Anderson. Also, I think it’s been said that Meghan DID NOT get paid for MasterChef Australia. So it would seem the only business was the news of Meghan’s investment in fashion app which benefited the fashion community in Australia greatly. Certainly Meghan got some free publicity for As ever along the and the Australian Invictus community received attention. The Sussexes discussed and brought attention to mental health issues and internet safety- both issues they have supported with their voices and their money. Harry and Meghan represent a unique model for royalty/philanthropy space. How many more stories are going to be written spreading misinformation to try to debase the good that Harry and Meghan do? And Emily Andrews can still find a publication to peddle her “reporting?”

    • BLACK ELDERBERRY says:

      💯👍🥰

    • Iolanthe says:

      Someone should go out there with a megaphone and tell these derangers , if they are actual people and not paid mercenaries planted by the Wank brigade …to direct their wrath toward those who are fattening off the land for nothing. While Harry costs them nothing.

  18. Amy Bee says:

    Whatever. Apparently only the press should make money off of Meghan.

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