Meghan Markle hated 2018 tour of Australia, Tina Brown claims in The Palace Papers

It was the tour that sent royal fans into a frenzy. But Meghan Markle reportedly found her Aussie royal visit with Prince Harry “pointless”.

It was the tour heralded as a PR coup for the royal family and one that sent royal fans into a frenzy with a surprise pregnancy announcement.

But Meghan Markle reportedly “hated every second” of her 2018 visit to Australia with Prince Harry and found the trip “pointless”.

Tina Brown’s revelation that the Duchess of Sussex was unimpressed with Australia is the latest bombshell claim in the former Vanity Fair editor’s new book The Palace Papers.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on South Melbourne Beach during their 2018 Australian tour. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

A student presents Meghan Markle with a tiara and flowers at Albert Park Primary School. Picture: David Caird

Greeted by thousands of cheering Aussies on a multi-stop tour that included Sydney, Melbourne, Dubbo and Queensland’s Fraser Island, Meghan appeared to enjoy the warm reception she received.

However behind the scenes, Brown alleges, things were very different as the Duchess of Sussex failed to grasp the “representational role” of the British royal family.

According to a staffer, Brown claims, Meghan was more interested in highlighting “the causes she wanted to spotlight”.

The pair braved the rain in Dubbo, where locals waved cardboard cut-outs of the couple and produced a specially brewed beer dubbed “Dubbo Royale”. Picture: AAP

“So, Meghan must have been thrilled with it all … right? No. She apparently hated every second of it,” Brown wrote of the much-lauded Aussie royal tour.

‘She didn’t understand why things were set up in that way. Instead of being excited when thousands of people showed up at the Opera House, it was very much like, ‘What’s the purpose? I don’t understand this’.”

The Palace Papers’ claims are supported by a 2021 article in The Times, which alleged that Meghan found it “silly” when people crowds gathered in Sydney to see the Sussexes.

“What are they all doing here? It’s silly,” she reportedly said to her team.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, smiles at Government House in Melbourne. Picture: AFP

The Sussexes at Cockatoo Island. Meghan reportedly found the royal tour “silly”. Picture: Getty Images

A source said that she simply “didn’t get it”, which has been a consistent claim about Meghan’s alleged unwillingness to adapt to royal life.

The Sussexes completed 75 engagements in 16 days across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga during the whirlwind tour.

They were seen embracing fans and receiving numerous gifts from the adoring public, who were even more excited after the news broke that the Duchess of Sussex was pregnant with her first child.

The pair talked to members of OneWave, an awareness group for mental health and wellbeing at Bondi. Picture: Chris Jackson-Pool/Getty Images

Brown claims in her book that the Australian tour provoked Meghan’s feelings of anger that she and Prince Harry were not being recognised for their importance in the royal hierarchy.

“It was head-turning for Meghan to experience the full-throttle motorcade-purring, outrider-vrooming, crowd-roaring adulation of a popular young royal on a tour planned to the last teacup by the Palace machine,” Brown writes.

“Meghan seemed to interpret the success as a call for Brand Sussex to be elevated in the Palace hierarchy.”

However, Meghan felt “snubbed” by the royal family after the couple returned to London.

Less than two years later, they announced they were stepping down as senior royals in the shock move that was dubbed “Megxit”.