Photos from day three of Harry and Meghan’s tour
Meghan’s fashionable visit to Australia raises royal alarm bells
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tour has raised alarm in royal circles after it emerged that Meghan is earning money from a shopping platform built around the outfits she wears on charitable engagements.
The Telegraph understands that the commercialisation of the Duchess’s wardrobe has “caused considerable concern” behind palace gates.
A royal source said: “Everybody just rolls their eyes now as they know the routine – push the envelope, get criticised, reverse tack and say you made a donation. By making money while doing ‘philanthropic’ work, they very much appear to be having their cake and eating it.“
A busy day of living her best life for Meghan
Good morning and welcome to day four of our live coverage of Harry and Meghan’s visit to Australia.
Today is the final day on the duke and duchess’ official itinerary, which lists a boat ride around Sydney Harbour with Invictus Australia, and a stop at the NSW Waratahs and Moana Pasifika rugby match.
You may remember the couple, then senior working royals and newlyweds, sailing around Sydney Harbour at the 2018 Invictus Games. While this masthead reported at the time that Meghan “shined like the sun” during the engagement, Invictus Australia chief executive Michael Hartung says the couple got a drenching on the breezy boat ride.
“We’re still apologising,” says Hartung. “Our fingers are crossed for some good weather [today].“
What’s not on the Sussexes’ official itinerary is Meghan’s engagement between the boat ride and the rugby – a short appearance at Gemma O’Neill’s Her Best Life retreat. Some guests are paying $3199 to be in the room (and get a “group table photo” with the duchess).
No media, no phones, and no recording is allowed at the event; its alleged itinerary reads, “Phones away, eyes up, and enjoy the magic!“
Wonderful life advice. But we implore you to do this instead: stay with us as we bring you rolling news updates.
Harry and Meghan were not paid for summit or MasterChef appearances
While we’ve established Harry and Meghan are making some money from their time in Australia, there’s been a clarification about certain stops on the tour.
According to the Press Association, Harry wasn’t paid an appearance fee for his speech at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne, nor was Meghan paid for her upcoming appearance on MasterChef Australia.
It’s unclear if Meghan is being paid for her upcoming Q&A session at the Her Best Life retreat, taking place tomorrow.
Harry praises Australia’s ‘epic’ social media ban
During a group discussion with young people associated with Australian mental health organisation Batyr at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology today, Harry said Australia’s ban on under-16s using social media was “epic” from a “responsibility and leadership standpoint”.
Wearing a blue shirt and jeans, the prince said: “Australia took the lead. Your government was the first country in the world to bring about a ban. Now we can sit here and debate the pros and cons of a ban – I’m not here to judge that. All I will say is – from a responsibility and leadership standpoint – epic.”
He added: “Because so many countries have now followed suit, but it should have never got to a ban.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have long campaigned to raise awareness about the harms of social media.
‘What would my mum want me to do?’ The question that guides Harry
Prince Harry said he had felt “lost, betrayed, or completely powerless” at times in his life, in a keynote speech at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne.
It’s one of the LA-based couple’s many engagements on their non-royal tour of Australia. The Press Association understands that Harry was not paid a fee for his speech, nor was Meghan paid for her appearance on MasterChef Australia, which she filmed on Wednesday.
In his address, Harry said: “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 shit together.
“Or as someone who, despite what it may look like, actually doesn’t have his shit together. But I was struck by something quite simple – that while my experiences may be unusual, the feelings that come with them are not. In my experience, loss is disorienting at any age.”
In a discussion after his speech with Australian business leader and former politician Brendan Nelson, Harry said: “After my mum died just before my 13th birthday – I was like: ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role – wherever this is headed, I don’t like it’.
“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 realised – 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.”
‘A failure of responsibility’: Harry lashes out at social media companies
Prince Harry has hit out at social media companies, saying we’ve normalised a pace of life that would have been unsustainable even a decade ago.
“When something unhealthy becomes normal, we stop questioning. And nowhere is that more visible than in the digital world because many of the systems shaping our reality, our attention, our self-worth and our relationships were not built around human wellbeing,” he said during his speech at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne.
In particular, he spoke about the impact of social media and AI on young people. “If a system is safe it should be safe even when it’s used imperfectly because we know children will find a way, and they always have.”
He continued: “Too many of these platforms are not designed with safety in mind. They’re designed for engagement, to draw people in, to keep them there, to shape behaviour. And we know these companies have the capability to understand who their users are. They can target young people with extraordinary precision … but when it comes to protecting those same young people, we are told that it’s too difficult, too complex, it can’t be done. That contradiction should concern all of us because if a platform is capable of targeting a child, it is surely capable of protecting them, and if it is not doing so, that is not a failure of technology. It is a failure of responsibility.”
Harry also congratulated Australia “for showing what leadership looks like in practice, stepping in to protect young people where platforms failed to act” through the federal government’s recent social media ban for under 16s.
“When an environment is causing harm, responsibility means stepping in, not standing back,” he said.
‘Every day for 10 years’: Meghan gets vulnerable about her bullying
Following their walking tour, Meghan and Harry visited Swinburne University of Technology to meet advocates from the mental health engagement program, Batyr.
Taking part in circle discussions about social media and mental health, Meghan referred to herself as the “most trolled person in the entire world”.
She said that tech companies running social platforms were “not incentivised to stop” online bullying and harassment. “And I can speak to that really personally, which is why I like to listen because it rings true for me in a very real way,” she told the group.
“Every day for 10 years, I have been bullied and attacked. And I was the most trolled person in the entire world.”
Sam Hall, Press Association in Melbourne
Locals surprised to cross paths with royals on Scar Tree Walk
It was an eventful morning for Meghan and Harry who started the day by taking part in Melbourne’s Scar Tree Walk.
Following the Birrarung (Yarra River), the Aboriginal walking tour connects traditional and contemporary Aboriginal cultures, exploring the histories of the local Indigenous people.
Along the way, Harry and Meghan posed for selfies and chatted to excited locals on their usual morning stroll who happened to catch the royals.
Rohan Davies, 40, and his three-year-old daughter, Heidi, both spoke to Harry. Davies described the encounter as “surreal”, adding, “it’s not something you see every day”.
Media wait for Harry’s next stop on royal tour ‘by the back door’
As journalists gathered at the InterEdge Summit in anticipation of hearing Prince Harry speaking at length about mental health, it became clear this “not a royal tour” was attracting interest far beyond Melbourne.
Roger Maynard, of The Times of London, was among the media pack. Were his reports getting a run in Britain, we inquired?
“Oh yes,” he said. “There’s a huge appetite for this story in the British media.”
Not surprising, perhaps. When Queen Elizabeth II struck a deal enabling her grandson Harry and his wife Meghan to step away from royal life in 2022, she ruled out Harry’s desire to continue making royal tours.
Some royal watchers in the British media have taken to describing the visit to Australia as a royal tour “by the back door”, and there was much unimpressed tutting, at least initially, at the young couple turning a dollar while doing so.
Since then, the couple have won some positive notices for their visit to The Royal Children’s Hospital and Harry’s advocacy for fatherhood, mental health and military veterans.
The speaking event on Thursday afternoon will mark the couple’s final engagement on the Melbourne leg of their tour. They next head to Sydney.
An inspiring evening off the record
As the days go on, more is coming to light about the off-schedule and off-the-record events Harry and Meghan have attended on their Australian tour.
On Tuesday night, it appears the couple attended an event held by Nexus Global. According to the Nexus Summit Instagram account, it’s the “leading global community of the next-gen philanthropists, impact investors and innovators accelerating social good throughout the world”.
Michael “Wippa” Wipfli and his wife Lisa both shared posts to their Instagram accounts from the evening, writing that they discussed the social initiative he co-founded, 36 Months, and “digital wellbeing for kids” with Harry and Meghan.
“An intimate event full of interesting and inspiring people who are driven to make a positive impact on the world,” wrote Lisa, who described Harry and Meghan as “kind, warm and authentic”.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
