Meghan’s Australia Gambit May Leave Harry Even Further Adrift From Royal Family

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex will spend several weeks in Australia next year as a guest judge on “Junior MasterChef Australia,” a getaway that highlights the clash between Prince Harry’s British roots and his family’s global ambitions.The Duchess of Sussex, a demonstrated fan of the culinary arts, declares in a press release, “I love cooking with my own kids, so seeing what these young stars create in the kitchen is going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see what they cook up!” Earlier this year the duchess, who moved back to Britain in August after six years at Montecito, California, appeared on “MasterChef Australia.” It is not yet known whether Prince Harry and their children will accompany her Down Under. “Junior MasterChef Australia” notes that Meghan will “help guide the next generation of young culinary talent.” The show’s host, Poh Ling Yeow, enthuses, “I had a lovely time filming with Meghan earlier this year, and being reunited will be a real treat. I can’t wait to meet our pint-sized culinary adventurers — I’m expecting plenty of delicious surprises and a little mischief, too.”The duchess’s role on “Junior MasterChef Australia” is her first publicized professional engagement since she, her husband, and their two children — Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — left the Golden State for the rural idyll of the Cotswolds. Earlier this month the duke and duchess undertook at Nottingham their first joint appearances since their move back. Prince Harry is sounding a call for “reconciliation” with his family, even as he acknowledges that “scars” remain from the ruptured royal relations between himself, King Charles III, and his brother William, Prince of Wales. Prince Harry’s familial fractures, though, pale in comparison with reports last week that Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., reported their father, Thomas Markle Sr. to law enforcement authorities for possession of vast amounts of child pornography. The duchess has disclosed that she knew of similar allegations as far back as 2018, but that the “breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine.” Mr. Markle Sr. denies the allegations — he calls them “sick lies”— but he hasn’t spoken to his daughter or son-in-law since immediately before the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018. Prince Harry hasn’t spoken to his brother, the prince, since the funeral of their grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. King Charles had not seen his Sussex grandchildren for four years before a clandestine summer summit at Highgrove House, his private country redoubt at Gloucestershire. When the Sussexes decamped to California in 2020 they signed a content production agreement with Netflix for a reported $100 million. Pursuant to that agreement the duchess created and hosted a cooking and lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan.” The program ran for two seasons — 16 episodes and a holiday special —between 2024 and 2026. The New York Times judges that her eponymous television show aimed to present herself as a “Goop-adjacent domestic goddess.” The royal watcher Tina Brown zinged that “with her unerring instinct for getting it wrong, Meghan has come out with a show about fake perfection just when the zeitgeist has turned raucously against it.”While the return of the Sussexes to Britain — called “reverse Megxit”— has not been accompanied by a return to acting for the duchess, her lifestyle brand, “As Ever,” endures. Particularly popular has been the “Flower Sprinkles,” a “blend of tiny vibrant edible flower petals that act as confetti for your plating” that are available for $15. Meghan tells Time Magazine that the product aims to “just create a little bit of magic that we’re all craving in our every day.”Whichever of the Sussexes set foot in Australia will do so, per the command from the Lord Chamberlain — a mouthpiece for the king — as “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.” They also will be bereft of the “HRH” honorific, the world’s most exclusive, which they forfeited when they abjured royal responsibilities. The last royals to visit Australia were the king and queen, who toured Sydney and Canberra in 2024.Australia was under British imperial rule from 1788 — when it was established as a penal colony — to 1901. The 1986 Australia Act severed any constitutional links between the British Parliament and the Australian state governments. The nations still maintain a personal union with the king as Australia’s head of state and her late Majesty still imprinted on the Australian $5 bill. However, in 2023, the Reserve Bank of Australia announced that King Charles will not appear on new issues of the banknote. Instead, it will be adorned with a design celebrating First Nations peoples.

Meghan’s Australia Gambit May Leave Harry Even Further Adrift From Royal Family

Meghan’s Australia Gambit May Leave Harry Even Further Adrift From Royal Family

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