Australia was good to Harry and Meghan. Now they want to use us as an ATM

Opinion

April 13, 2026 — 5:00am

Forget interest rate hikes, skyrocketing fuel prices and stubborn inflation. Harry and Meghan are landing in Australia, and happy to help relieve us of all that spare cash they believe we’re carrying.

And what timing! In this new era of global upheaval and household hardship, we have so much to learn from an American actor-turned-duchess-turned-entrepreneur-turned-hawker of boutique jams and honey. Really, it’s the ex-royals who are doing us a favour by visiting, not the other way around. Don’t you realise what an honour it is to be graced by their presence? Naturally, that honour comes with a hefty price tag, for Harry and Meghan are laser-focused on building a healthy bank balance.

The last time they were in Australia, no such financial strings were attached. Their 2018 visit was one of the royal family’s most successful, drawing huge crowds and enormous support after the couple announced shortly after landing at Sydney Airport they were expecting their first child.

The seven-day tour of Sydney, Melbourne, Dubbo and Fraser Island was such a hit that Harry would later claim that Australia’s affection for his new wife created deep jealousy at Buckingham Palace, much like Princess Diana in 1983. “The issue is when someone who is marrying in should be a supporting act is then stealing the limelight or doing the job better than the person who was born to do this that upsets people,” he said in the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

Much has changed since those heady days of 2018. For one thing, Harry and Meghan have gone from being wildly popular to, well, not. YouGov, which regularly tracks the popularity of individual members of the Windsor family, in January reported that 66 per cent of Brits have an unfavourable opinion of Meghan. Just 19 per cent had a favourable view of her – a record low. She is now the second-most disliked royal, beaten only by the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.

In the weeks after his Australia visit, Harry was the most popular member of the royal family, according to YouGov, with just 7 per cent of people having a negative view of him. Today, that figure is 60 per cent.

In the 7½ years since the trip, Harry and Megan split from the royal family in favour of life in California, and tipped a bucket over the monarchy on the way out. But life outside the tent was not cheap.

Despite wanting financial independence, Harry whinged that he had to pay for his own security costs, instead of UK taxpayers, who have enough trouble affording to heat their homes in winter, let alone pay for guards outside Harry’s joint.

Then there was the matter of property. After staying at a Beverly Hills mansion owned by actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry, the couple went on a house hunt. The search was most dispiriting, especially when they found a dream home online. “We didn’t have jobs, so we just were not going to come and see this house,” Meghan told The Cut’s Allison P. Davis. “It wasn’t possible. It’s like when I was younger and you’re window-shopping – it’s like, I don’t want to go and look at all the things that I can’t afford. That doesn’t feel good.” Tragic stuff. Sydney and Melbourne first home aspirants will surely have much sympathy.

In the end, the duke and duchess purchased the $US14.65 million ($21 million), 16-bedroom Montecito house because, as Meghan explained to Davis, “you walk in and go … joy. And exhale. And calm. It’s healing. You feel free.” Reports said the couple put down a $US5 million deposit and took out a $US10 million mortgage.

With bills to pay, the hustle went into overdrive. Millions of dollars and mixed success followed. The pair set up Archewell, the umbrella organisation for their charitable and commercial endeavours. There are serious questions over the future of Archewell Philanthropies following a staff exodus led by longtime aide James Holt. Filings from 2024 show the foundation had $US2.6 million in revenue that year, roughly half of the year prior. It handed out about $US1.2 million in grants, and spent $US913,000 on salaries. (Two-thirds of that went to just three employees, including Holt and co-executive director Shauna Nep.)

On the private revenue front, Harry and Meghan struck a multi-year deal with streaming giant Netflix for a reported $US100 million. Most projects have fallen flat but the couple are still earning big bucks from the streamer for now. The couple were pictured over the weekend at a party at the Montecito home of Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos and his wife Nicole Avant.

They also struck a $US20 million podcast deal with Spotify but the arrangement imploded after Meghan delivered just 12 episodes. Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetisation, Bill Simmons, later said he wished he had made a podcast series about the ex-royals titled The F---ing Grifters.

There was a stack of other cash, too: Harry received a reported $US20 million ($28.5 million) advance from Penguin Random House for his bestselling book Spare, and pocketed what a Clarence House spokesman said was a “substantial sum” from his father to help the transition to life outside Britain. And then there’s the £6 million ($11.4 million in today’s money) he inherited from Princess Diana, and the reported £8 million from the late Queen Mother’s estate he picked up after turning 40 in 2024. The trust was structured in a way as to ensure the payment was tax-free.

None of that is enough, of course. More money must be made, and we look like a soft target. Australia was good to Harry and Meghan in 2018 – now they’re back to use us as an ATM.

On Saturday, Meghan will headline a weekend retreat at the InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach. Early bird tickets were a steal at just $2699 per person, while an elevated experience, which includes a group table photo with the duchess, costs $3199. Meghan will pick up tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for her appearance. Taxpayers will pick up the bill for any policing required in Sydney and Melbourne.

The former Suits actor has also trademarked her As Ever lifestyle brand in Australia, signalling an impending expansion. The trademark was accepted for registration in June 2025 under a category titled “fancy”. That’s one word for it. Another is expensive. A water lotus, sandalwood and California poppy candle, “the signature scent that warms Meghan’s family home”, costs $US64, while the “go-to hostess” gift box of jams, honey and tea will set you back $US132. The website modestly declares As Ever is “more than a brand – it’s a love language”.

Two days before Meghan’s appearance in Coogee, Harry will join other “global thought leaders” for a conference examining “the intersection of leadership, psychosocial safety and human connection in the workplace”. The InterEdge Summit is for-profit but some proceeds go to Lifeline. Tickets cost thousands of dollars. Some media outlets have claimed Harry will pick up a speaker’s fee worth tens of thousands of dollars. We have asked his team if that is the case but haven’t heard back.

Sure, the ex-royals will support a few important not-for-profit causes while in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, and Harry’s support for the Invictus Games is admirable, but does anyone seriously believe they are coming to our shores for reasons other than financial and reputational?

Harry and Meghan are free agents and entirely within their rights to earn cash wherever they like. And if people want to part with their hard-earned for access, good luck to them. But do not be fooled: this is no royal visit but a continuation of tone-deaf hawking by a couple estranged from reality. Have they stopped to wonder whether their excruciating business model could be the primary driver behind their spectacular fall from public grace? Might be worth pondering on the private jet ride home.

Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.