Prince Harry may be following in his father’s footsteps by bringing his new wife to Australia for their first major overseas tour beginning on October 16, but the royal newlyweds are unlikely to face the same angst endured by Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Two years after their 1981 fairytale wedding, Charles and Diana landed in Australia to begin their first official international tour, bringing their nine-month-old son Prince William along too.
But years later in her tell-all book with Andrew Morton, Diana confided how she found the massive crowds overwhelming throughout the six-weeks Down Under and wanted to flee home to London.
Diana felt it was “make or break time for me”, while Charles was shocked to discover how the thousands of Aussie wellwishers who lined up to see them were more interested in his new bride than their future king.
“Everybody always said when we were in the car, ‘Oh, we’re in the wrong side, we want to see her, we don’t want to see him,’ and that’s all we could hear when we went down the crowds and obviously he wasn’t used to that and nor was I,” Diana told Moreton.
No doubt the media interest in Harry and Meghan’s visit in October will be just as intense – if not even more with 24-hour news coverage and social media – with thousands of Aussies wanting to get a glimpse of the newlyweds.
But unlike Diana, the Duchess of Sussex is much more accustomed to dealing with the spotlight thanks to her acting career and public appearances on the red carpet.