For many, a two-week, state-funded trip to Australia would be a dream.

The endless sun and trips to Sydney Opera House, Taronga Zoo and Bondi Beach would be enough to turn most Britons green with envy.

But for Meghan Markle, who grew up with Los Angeles on her doorstep, it wasn’t the fun-filled trip she might have imagined.

Their visit in October 2018 lined up with the fourth Invictus Games and was the couple’s inaugural official royal tour post-marriage.

They journeyed to Admiralty House, located on Sydney Harbour, which served as the residence of then-governor-general Peter Cosgrove, the Queen’s representative in Australia at the time.

This tour saw them retracing the steps of Prince Harry’s parents, Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, as their first royal tour also took them to Australia and New Zealand.

Royal biographer Tina Brown wrote: ‘Echoes of Charles and Diana’s famous first Australia conquest were irresistible in the number and excitement of the fans who turned out.

‘Meghan was photographed in full Diana mode, hugging toddlers who gave her flowers, dropping to her knees to clasp both hands of an ancient granny in a wheelchair in Sydney.

‘The New York Times acclaimed the couple as “young, diverse and exuding cool, the new faces of royalty”.

‘Powering through seventy-six engagements, Meghan showed the promising stamina of a royal workhorse, particularly encouraging now that she was four months pregnant.’ 

But according to Ms Brown, Meghan hated every second of it.

In her book Palace Papers the royal expert wrote: ‘So Meghan must have been thrilled with it all… right? No. 

‘She apparently hated every second of it. She found the itinerary of engagements “pointless”, a former Palace employee told me.’

The staffer said Meghan didn’t appear to grasp the ‘representational role’ of the British monarchy when they toured, adding she was more interested in ’causes she wanted to spotlight’. 

‘Such engagements are old school, yes, but create classic royal ties that bind.’ 

Months later, the influential editor also said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ‘completely underestimated’ what life without the ‘palace platform’ would be like – arguing that Meghan lacks a defined ‘brand’ and instead latches on to the ‘Twitter cause of the moment’. 

According to Ms Brown, Meghan looked to the example of Princess Diana and thought that she could follow the same path.

However, she argued that the Duchess did not recognise the ‘great deal of very humdrum assignments’ Diana undertook on behalf of the Firm before she became the icon she remains today.

‘I think that was her fundamental sense of misunderstanding of what was going to happen when she joined the Royal Family – she saw the palaces and Diana as this global humanitarian super star, but forgot that for 16 or 17 years Diana worked like a dog within the Royal Family doing a great deal of very humdrum assignments.

‘It was her charisma she brought to the job that made her so extraordinarily special.’

The author said the couple made ‘bad choices’ and could have left the Royal Family on far better terms if they weren’t as ‘hotheaded’ when they made the decision to step back from their roles as working royals.

Ms Brown’s claims are supported in an article from The Times which claimed Meghan found it ‘silly’ when people crowded to see the Sussexes when they arrived in Sydney.

‘What are they all doing here? It’s silly,’ she reportedly said to her team.

A source said that she simply ‘didn’t get it’ – a tone mirrored by Harry.

Brown wrote: ‘He fulminated over the customary presence of the royal press pack, even though the copy they filed was overwhelmingly complimentary.

‘When the Palace team encouraged him to go to the back of the plane and chat up the travelling press, Harry unendearingly told them: “Thanks for coming, not that anyone invited you.”

‘Did he forget that it was a taxpayer-funded trip?’ 

Even the crowds of adoring fans weren’t enough to win the Sussexes over.

The tour coincided with ‘Megmania’, as it was dubbed by the Australian press.

Nearly 5.5million Australians tuned in to Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

But the Sussexes’ big day didn’t quite trump his brother William’s 2011 nuptials to Kate, which scored 6million viewers. 

Despite this, Ms Brown wrote that the crowds were ‘markedly more enthusiastic’ than for Kate and William in their own Australian tour in 2014.

The Sussexes completed 75 engagements in 16 days across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga during the whirlwind tour – all while Meghan was in the early stages of her first pregnancy.

They were often pictured having intimate conversations, embracing fans or receiving numerous gifts from admirers during their time Down Under.

Brown claims in her book that one of the main things Meghan took away from the tour was her and Harry’s unrecognised importance in the royal hierarchy.

‘It was head-turning for Meghan to experience the full-throttle motorcade-purring, outrider-vrooming, crowd-roaring adulation of a popular young royal on a tour planned to the last teacup by the Palace machine.

‘Meghan seemed to interpret the success as a call for Brand Sussex to be elevated in the Palace hierarchy.’ 

However, Meghan reportedly felt ‘snubbed’ of appreciation by the Royal Family after the couple returned to the UK. 

Brown wrote: ‘A former aide acknowledged to me that it is often a “massive anticlimax” when you get back from a royal tour.’

According to a royal expert the Sussexes’ trip became a ‘catalyst’ for leaving their roles as senior working roles and relocating to America.

Royal historian Tim Ewart told Sky News: ‘Australia broke Harry and Meghan and was one of the catalysts for them leaving the Royal Family.

‘She and Harry had expected they would get much more praise and recognition from that royal tour.’

In their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, Harry said: ‘It really changed after the Australia tour, after our South Pacific tour. 

‘It was the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job. And that brought back memories.

‘To see how effortless it was for Meghan to come into the family so quickly in Australia and across New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, and just be able to connect with people.’

Within 18 months of the tour Meghan and Harry had stepped back from their royal roles and moved to California with their son Archie.

Since the couple stepped down in 2020, their popularity in Britain has hit a record low, according to the latest YouGov data.

In 2019, 55 per cent saw Meghan Markle favourably compared to this year when her rating dropped to just 20 per cent – meaning only Prince Andrew is more disliked than her. 

William and Kate top the list of favoured royals, with 75 per cent having a positive opinion of the heir to the throne and 72 per cent toward his wife. 

The poll of 2,222 UK adults was carried out from May 6 to 7, which was after Harry’s bombshell interview with the BBC on May 2 following his Court of Appeal defeat.

In November 2024, a YouGov poll found nearly 45 per cent of the 1,500 Australians surveyed said the country should keep the monarchy after the King passes away, a rise from 35 per cent in 2023.

This is compared to 45 per cent of Australians who showed support for ditching the monarchy in Australia in favour of a republic in a nationwide referendum 25 years ago. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales are still the most popular, at 74 and 73 per cent respectively.

And Meghan and Andrew were the least popular royals, scoring 30 per cent and 19 per cent. 

It seems that this trip marked the beginning of the end for Meghan and Harry’s time as working royals and set into place a chain of events that would see them step down from their roles.