{"id":531802,"date":"2026-04-15T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531802\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:41:09","slug":"meghans-business-trip-to-australia-shows-the-tragedy-of-prince-harry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531802\/","title":{"rendered":"Meghan\u2019s business trip to Australia shows the tragedy of Prince Harry"},"content":{"rendered":"

You wonder if Prince Harry even has any idea what he is doing in Australia<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Meghan, we know, is to be interviewed on stage at a \u201cgirls\u2019 weekend\u201d retreat in Sydney this weekend \u2013 where the \u00a31,650 VIP package includes a group selfie opportunity with the duchess<\/a>. Who could resist?<\/p>\n

To which you have to say: where does that leave Harry?<\/p>\n

He is billed, for what it\u2019s worth, as a guest speaker at something called the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne on Thursday, exploring the \u201cvital space where individual wellbeing and organisational responsibility meet\u201d. This seems a bit on the nose. If he was actually any good at \u201corganisational responsibility\u201d, the whole \u201cworking member of the Royal family\u201d thing might have worked out a bit better<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Look, God forbid a young couple enjoy a mini-break<\/a>. But what exactly does it say if a tightly scheduled programme of fundraising engagements is the only way for Harry and Meghan to spend some quality time together? Perhaps the besties VIP package appeals to him. He could show up at the five-star InterContinental Coogee Beach with a ticket in one hand and a selfie stick in the other, yelling, \u201cSurprise!\u201d Tickets to meet Meghan are still available<\/a>. Imagine that. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I can\u2019t help thinking the waking nightmare for any mum of two on a girls\u2019 weekend is for their husband to actually join them on it. The husband\u2019s job, from personal experience, is in fact to stay at home and say reassuring things about nursery pickup and bathtime while remaining schtum about mystery rashes and the fact that they woke up eight times last night yelling \u201cMummy!\u201d. Harry knows this. Even as he trundles around on this \u201cpart business, part charity\u201d <\/a>quasi-royal four-day tour, wheeled out at the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital here, playing the old hits there, not for the first time he looks a bit, well, spare. <\/p>\n

Not only that, but he has lost dad points. Crucially, with me. There is a ranking system, although we won\u2019t talk about that. Just take my word for it that dads desperately seek out other dads as role models. It is how we learn. Usually from afar, in the absence of actually asking for advice. And Harry, from afar, seems to me to be an excellent dad role model. His memoir, Spare, if it was anything, was an exercise in being curious about his own father. <\/p>\n

I have long found Prince Harry relatable. I think it\u2019s a girl dad<\/a> thing. He has Lilibet, four<\/a>, and I have my daughter, two. He has a grey tee emblazoned with the words \u2018Girl Dad\u2019 which he wears running. I don\u2019t, but I\u2019d certainly like one. We have the same colour hair, and increasingly we both have less of it. At 41, he is going to seed in a way that I, at 35, find both reassuring and encouraging. <\/p>\n

So it goes without saying that I sincerely think he looks like a very good dad. You just get a vibe. <\/p>\n

\"HavingHaving the time of their lives: Prince Harry and Meghan in Australia \u2013 without their children (PA)<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m not on board with is jetting halfway around the world for four days and leaving the kids behind. It\u2019s not a great look.<\/p>\n

He may well have his reasons. But photos of him at the aforementioned children\u2019s hospital show him hugging the kids there with the unmistakable crumpled look of someone who really misses his own. According to the Daily Mail, he spent the 15-hour commercial Qantas flight \u2013 no private jet, your majesty? \u2013 talking about his children to anyone in business class who would listen. Which I absolutely love. <\/p>\n

So what is he doing on the biggest grift since the Spice Girls\u2019 third reunion tour? If I were him, I\u2019d have stayed home. That\u2019s surely where he\u2019d rather be. It\u2019s definitely where he ought to be. Not shilling for coin on the Gold Coast. Given a choice, I am certain he\u2019d rather be at a \u201cPints & Ponytails\u201d get-together at a London pub learning how to plait hair. And possibly not in Montecito at all. <\/p>\n

This is the tragedy of Prince Harry. Under a fairytale Megxit spell, he is cursed to live a life half in, half out of the real world, condemned to business class, to petitions of 45,000 furious Australians miffed at having to fork out for his security detail, to guest speaker slots presumably booked to \u201cbuild the brand\u201d<\/a> while his CEO wife gets her Goop on. Paying your own way won\u2019t pay for itself. But don\u2019t most people take their business trips in turns? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You wonder if Prince Harry even has any idea what he is doing in Australia. Meghan, we know,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-531802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}