Who and what Meghan and Harry will bring on their Australian tour next month
Mountains of colour-coded luggage, an army of assistants and a secret stash of booze. There is no such thing as travelling light when you are a royal, writes Kerry Parnell.
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As Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, make final preparations for their Australian tour, here’s what and who comes with them.
THE ENTOURAGE
The days of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex setting off on a trip with a mini wheelie suitcase are long gone. Now she’ll need enough luggage to outfit a small nation as well as an entourage of assistants to make sure everything runs smoothly. Let’s hope they’ve paid for excess luggage.
The married couple is likely to bring around a dozen people with them when they visit Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga next month.
When Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge toured Australia and New Zealand in 2014 they took 11 assistants and 12 on their 2016 trip to Canada.
And when Prince Harry and Meghan went on a two-day tour of Ireland in July they had a team of 11, even for such a short visit.
This included Harry’s private secretary Ed Lane Fox, who has since resigned, a foreign advisor and an assistant, as well as a press team of four, a personal assistant and a digital media photographer.
Meghan’s team included her hairdresser George Northwood who did her wedding hair for her evening reception and assistant private secretary Amy Pickerill.
Central to their tour will be Australian Samantha Cohen, their new private secretary, formerly The Queen’s assistant private secretary.
But that’s nothing to the team The Queen takes — she has been known to travel with as many as 34 people on state visits, including doctors carrying packs of her and Prince Philip’s blood types in case of emergency.
THE LUGGAGE
The royals have monogrammed colour-coded suitcases to make it easy to identify items. The Queen uses yellow tags with her name on them, as does Catherine, while William and Prince Charles use red and Princess Anne green. It’s not known what colour Harry has, or which shade Meghan will be allocated. The Royal Family like Globe-Trotter suitcases, a luxury brand The Queen has used since she married. The company proudly declares, “HM Queen Elizabeth II chose Globe-Trotter for her honeymoon luggage in 1947 and continues to use her cases to this day.”
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The king of luxury travel goods was Edward, Duke of Windsor. After he abdicated he and Wallis Simpson regularly sailed from France to the USA and were legendary for their luggage. He once boarded the SS United States with 100 suitcases.
PASSPORTS
The only member of the Royal Family who doesn’t require a passport is The Queen, but even she has to go through security. While we imagine one is not left waiting long or grilled over the question of “occupation” she still has to have an identity check.
SECRET STASH
According to insiders, Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall sometimes take a secret stash of booze so they can have a snifter without fear of drinks being spiked. Their bodyguards discreetly carry gin and tonic for Charles and red wine for Camilla.
CODE NAMES
According to recent reports, the royals have code names allocated to them by their security teams. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are known by their DS initials, called David Stevens and Davina Scott by their bodyguards and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were similarly nicknamed Danny Collins and Daphne Clark. The names change frequently, which is a good thing as their cover has just been blown.