Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s taxpayer-funded trip Down Under has sparked further backlash after the Duchess of Sussex fled a weekend retreat event after just two hours, despite fans paying more than $3,000 to spend time with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old made an appearance at the Her Best Life retreat, where she was reportedly paid $150,000 to attend, held at the InterContinental in beachside Coogee on Friday.<\/p>\n
Markle spent around two hours with attendees before leaving the event in a waiting Range Rover with her husband Prince Harry.<\/p>\n
The couple then attended a Super Rugby match at Allianz Stadium, which began at 7.30pm, arriving just in time for kick-off.<\/p>\n
Standard tickets to the “luxury” retreat cost $2,699, while a “VIP experience” – which included a “group table photo” with the duchess – sold for $3,199.<\/p>\n
Although Markle was only scheduled to attend a portion of the event, the high ticket prices for a 120-minute appearance drew criticism.<\/p>\n
“Why did Meghan Markle not even share a meal with women who had paid $3,000 to spend ‘retreat’ time with her?” one person wrote on social media, as reported by Page Six.<\/p>\n
“She disappeared before dinner and spent longer at the rugby, where she ate classic footy fare.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t go down there to spend time with any of those people, just to get a few PR photos and collect her share of the takings,\u201d another claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow ridiculous – they advertised like she was spending the whole weekend with them,\u201d a third added.<\/p>\n
Another wrote: \u201c2 hours? I thought it was a weekend retreat? WOW!\u201d<\/p>\n
However, a PR representative for Markle responded to the backlash, saying her appearance at the retreat was always planned to be limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeghan was always confirmed only to attend the retreat for her Q&A portion of the weekend,\u201d Markle\u2019s rep told Page Six in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a lovely time sitting down and talking to Gemma in front of such an engaging audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other fans shed a more positive light on the event, with some saying Meghan’s warmth was “incredibly beautiful to witness”.<\/p>\n
“Meghan’s style, tone and warmth was just incredibly beautiful to witness. Some of the key messages and take away were so powerful,” one person commented on Her Best Life’s Instagram post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Incredible interview,” wrote another.<\/p>\n
A third wrote: “Wow!! Such a beautiful event. Love them so much.”<\/p>\n
Friday marked the end of the Sussexes’ Australia tour, during which the couple filled four days with public engagements and philanthropic appearances.<\/p>\n
They visited the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, met survivors of the Bondi attack, supported veterans at the War Memorial, and attended a rugby match.<\/p>\n
Markle also made a brief appearance as a guest judge on Network 10’s MasterChef Australia, while Prince Harry delivered a keynote address on workplace mental health at the InterEdge Summit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s taxpayer-funded trip Down Under has sparked further backlash after the Duchess of Sussex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,33664,262573,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-614484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-meghan-markle","11":"tag-royal-tour","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}