The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Sydney today after completing the Melbourne leg of their “royal tour.” As I said, I’m actually fine with calling it a royal tour at this point, because that’s exactly what it is. The left-behind Windsors should take it as a compliment as well – Harry and Meghan are literally doing “royal-touring” better than any of the “working royals.” This Australian visit was very focused on mental health, and Harry has already delivered his (paid) speech at the InterEdge Summit. Quotes from his speech are being widely reported, and I have questions about that. People Magazine had extensive coverage of Harry’s speech, but they cite PA Media (Press Association) for the quotes. Other outlets aren’t citing PA Media – did the summit give out press passes, or did certain royal reporters pay for tickets? I don’t know. Here’s some of what Harry said:
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wrapped up the third day of their trip to Australia with a private charity event, where Harry delivered the keynote address and made moving comments about his mental health and experiences with grief. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the InterEdge Summit at the CENTREPIECE venue at Melbourne Park on Thursday, April 16 (local time). It was previously announced that Prince Harry would be a keynote speaker on workplace mental health at the summit on leadership in the workplace.
While speaking to the audience in a 19-minute address, Harry, 41, said he had felt “lost, betrayed or completely powerless” during his life as wife Meghan, 44, watched on.
The Duke told the audience that there was a “lot in the world right now leaving us feeling anxious, stressed, helpless, powerless and completely overwhelmed,” PA Media reported.
“When I was invited to speak at this summit, I wasn’t sure whether I was expected to speak as someone who, despite everything, has their s— together. Or as someone who, despite what it may look like, actually doesn’t have his s— together.” Harry continued. “But I was struck by something quite simple —that while my experiences may be unusual, the feelings that come with them are not.”
Harry then commented on his experience with grief amid the loss of his mother Princess Diana, who died following a car accident in Paris in August 1997.
“In my experience, loss is disorienting at any age,” Harry said. “Grief does not disappear because we ignore it. Experiencing that as a kid while in a goldfish bowl under constant surveillance, yes, that will have its challenges. And without purpose, it can break you,” he added, per PA Media.
“There have been many times when I’ve felt overwhelmed,” Harry continued. “Times when I’ve felt lost, betrayed, or completely powerless. Times when the pressure – externally and internally — felt constant. And times when, despite everything going on, I still had to show up pretending everything was okay, so as not to let anyone down. For many years I was numb to it, and perhaps that was easier then, but I also didn’t yet have the tools to deal with it.”
Harry also opened up about how his time in the military helped him build resilience, saying that the experience, which featured two tours of duty to Afghanistan, taught him resilience wasn’t about pushing issues down but building the capacity to deal with those that comes up.
In a discussion after his address with Australian business leader and former politician Brendan Nelson, Harry said that after his mother “died just before my 13th birthday,” he felt alienated from his royal destiny as he struggled with her death and grief.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role — wherever this is headed, I don’t like it,’ ” Harry said, PA Media reported. “It killed my mum and I was very much against it, and I stuck my head in the sand for years and years. Eventually I realized, well, hang on, if there was somebody else in this position, how would they be making the most of this platform and this ability and the resources that come with it to make a difference in the world? And also, what would my mum want me to do? And that really changed my own perspective,” he added.
Already this week, I’ve complimented Harry for being a role model of healthy masculinity, able to access his vulnerability and own his flaws without drowning in toxicity. I have another compliment for him – it takes a lot of effort to remain so open-hearted and optimistic. Imagine how easy it would be for Harry to become jaded and cynical about everything he’s been through, to say “after everything that’s happened to me, I burned all of those bridges.” His memoir, Spare, was a lot of things, but it was never about cynicism. It was always a therapeutic journey for him, to understand what happened and how his grief and trauma affected him long-term.
Incidentally, if you go to Meghan’s OneOff account, you can see her look at this event. What Meg Wore also did a breakdown.
Note by CB: Meghan is wearing the Posse Emma linen midi skirt and Emma Linen vest. (This post contains our affiliate links. If you’d like to support What Meghan Wore you can follow the affiliate links in their tweet.)
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
-
- The Duke of Sussex delivers the keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit, at Centrepiece in Melbourne Park, Victoria on day three of the royal trip to Australia Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 16 Apr 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- The Duke of Sussex delivers the keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit, at Centrepiece in Melbourne Park, Victoria on day three of the royal trip to Australia Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 16 Apr 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- The Duke of Sussex delivers the keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit, at Centrepiece in Melbourne Park, Victoria on day three of the royal trip to Australia Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 16 Apr 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
The Times actually had to post a retraction – harry was not paid for the summit speech. So aside from Meghan’s upcoming event and her launching the website, while they maybe have some things we don’t see, very little of their work here is commercial.
I thought I read somewhere that Meghan’s appearance is also so support a mental health charity, so this whole trip may have been related to their mental health focus. It’s still not clear whether Meghan’s appearance is a paid appearance or not. It’s starting to sound like most of the trip is philanthropy/charity tour. The announcement of Meghan’s investment in the AI venture and perhaps her appearance on MasterChef seem like the only “commercial” elements. I like to think their Scar walk was a treat for themselves! Hope Meghan gets to experience some great cuisine while in Sydney.
Harry is just so good at talking about mental health and at being relatable.
That quote about wanting to reject his royal role but then asking himself what his mum would have wanted him to do … so powerful.
As I already mentioned, Harry has always been the smart one with tons of brain. The Harry is dumb and thick” label was purposely labeled him to make his thick brother appear like he was smarter
That quote alone is going to have The Bully, Cluck, and Cluck’s sidepiece Mari Lwyd crashing out for MONTHS.
Diana did it better.
Harry and Meghan do it better.
Poor wee palace left behind sausages. Must suck to suck.
Meanwhile, the champion of abused women can’t be bothered to meet with Epstein survivors. Harry and Meghan are effective because they are genuine. They aren’t ridiculing the people they meet once they aren’t in front of them. They aren’t rolling their eyes when faced with something new or different.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role — wherever this is headed, I don’t like it,’ ”
I wonder if William also felt this way. I think he loves the money and privilege, but the job? It could explain his passive-aggressive attitude and his resentment toward Harry.
I definitely think William felt the same, especially when he was young. There’s an interview he did with Tom Bradby back from when he did his gap year and you can kind of sense that. It’s wild to think that William has known Bradby for 20 years or so but has now cut him off bc he asked Meghan how she was feeling in an interview.
Agreed. William used to be pretty clear that he didn’t want this job.
I think the difference is, Harry said “how can I use this role to help others?” and William said “wait, I can get 25 million a year and work 20 days? Done.”
I agree, I think he must have, and still hates it (but not the money, I agree with that too). And he didn’t do the work on himself like Harry and ended up marrying someone who brought out and encouraged his worst instincts. He had to get married and he was petulant in doing so.
I don’t think he’s ever liked Harry and the fact that H embraces and utilizes what he can to benefit others, W is very resentful. H looks happier and it makes W and W’s choices look so much worse. If W is going to be miserable, *everyone* should be, and H didn’t go along with that plan.
@calliope – everyone in William’s immediate orbit is clearly miserable.
I mean, when you look at the whole family during public events, and how W interacts with his own family…all his kids tend to look like they’re in a hostage video.
he is very good at these speeches. It seems he didn’t get paid but I think he is worth it for the paid speeches he does give.
Here, I like how he brought the story sort of full circle – he was angry after his mother died, he didn’t want to do the royal thing anymore, and then he thought “wait a minute. I have this platform, I need to use it, because others would love to have this and they don’t.” So he turned what was a burden (his royal role) into something of purpose, and I think that is what has enabled him to succeed in a post royal life. He’s purpose driven, he wants to help people, he genuinely wants to make a difference and he knows he and Meghan have this unique spotlight to highlight their causes and organizations. There are a lot of negatives to that spotlight as we talk about here all the time, but there are positives as well and they’re using those the best they can. If that makes sense lol.
I so agree with Kaiser, Prince Harry could have easily turned his grief into toxicity but as he mentioned, he leaned into what his mother would want for him. I also agree with a previous post, that was a powerful statement. Instead of toxicity, this man leaned into his emphatic side and has been doing this since. What a well rounded man.
I just snuck a look at her page….the shoes are sold out…dang😩
How do you see more detail on the page? When I have clicked on the link, it goes to a page with very little on it except photographs in the middle of changing regularly showing the fashion. That doesn’t seem to be any way to see more detail.
When you click on a picture, little icons come up showing the shoes, tops, etc. that you can click and scroll through. There’s also a “looks” (shows the pictures of her) or “products” option (shows the things she’s worn w/o linking to a particular look).
Why yes, I have spent some time window shopping on the site! lol
I feel cynical pretty much every day right now so a reminder to try and stay optimistic and do your best in whatever way you can is always a good thing.
Btw, @CB, if you do another affiliate post, Meghan wore some crocs, cognac color clogs, about a year ago on her insta but they’ve been sold out forever. They’re finally re-stocked now. I got them even though I don’t typically do crocs but these ones are cute. There’s also a dark brown color.
Harry and Meghan have faced scrutiny and pressure unlike any other public figures-they have entire media industries criticizing, examining, focusing on every single thing they do. Very little of it is fair, and the majority of it exists with the goal of doing them harm–physical, psychological, and financial harm. The way they have constantly risen above the hatred and the scrutiny lobbed their way has given them strength and resilience beyond measure. I’m not saying the scrutiny they faced was good–it remains terrible and unfair and infuriating. But the fact that they have still built a meaniful life full of meaningful work is extraordinary.
The left behind royals, in comparison, face no scrutiny at all. The Wales in particular look fragile and brittle in comparison. William and Kate would crumble to pieces under the pressures and the scrutiny that Harry and Meghan have faced. Can you imagine William standing up to questions about Earthshot? What’s its purpose, where its money goes, what’s its overall vision? Or Kate with her Early Years? What’s the point? What are your goals? Could either of them do an off the cuff interview or speech? Could either of them deliver a heartfelt, well-constructed speech like Harry?
The British media, the rota ratchets can do nothing but enable and prop up these flimsy, fragile royals while pretending they are doing real work. It’s a complete joke. If any of the ratchets had a conscience, they would realize they are spending their lives writing lies about and giving praise to a passel of fools who are completely incapable of doing the jobs they are publically paid to do. What I wonder is how long can the pretense be held up? Every time Harry and Meghan appear, they demonstrate how lacking the rest of the royals are in comparison. And how incapable the rest of them are of living up to even a fraction of the scrutiny the Sussexes face,
This is to @Lanne, this is *it* and the way you’ve put it is so *yes* ….100%.
His vulnerability and frankness are so refreshing. I love his comments about how he went from essentially a nihilistic view point (normal for a young teen in trauma) to recognizing the privilege of his platform. We need so much more of that in this world.
I’ve seen a deranger complain that Harry used swear words in his speech. Whatever. It must be very freeing for Harry to be able to talk his experiences. He’s a good role model for people experiencing the same issues.
I started wearing Posse because of Meghan a few years ago, woo hoo! She looks great and it’s a terrific, woman owned Aussie brand 👍