Victoria Ward Deputy Royal Editor, in Melbourne

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will prioritise listening and learning “rather than promotion” on a four-day tour of Australia this week, sources say.

The couple will visit Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney during the trip, which begins on Tuesday, and undertake “private meetings and special projects” about their favourite charitable issues.

However, they may struggle to win the support of the Australian media, which already described the tour as a “financial and reputational” exercise at the weekend.

Lucrative speaking engagements, including the Duchess’s appearance at a highly publicised £1,400 “girls-only” weekend event, will run back-to-back with engagements that focus on mental health, community resilience and military veterans.

In response to criticism that the pseudo-royal tour was designed to promote their own brand, a source close to the Sussexes said: “The visit prioritises listening, learning and supporting communities rather than promotion.”

They added that the engagements would reflect their “long-standing commitment” to such issues globally.

The tour will be a “welcome distraction” from a defamation lawsuit lodged against Prince Harry by Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in honour of his mother.

Last week, it emerged that Sentebale was suing the Duke for defamation in the High Court. The litigation follows a bitter dispute last year with Dr Sophie Chandauka, the chairman of the charity’s board, over financial problems and fundraising strategy, which led to the Duke and his fellow trustees resigning amid public recriminations.

Prince Harry has denied the accusations of libel and slander.

‘Welcome distraction’

A source told The Telegraph that the Australian visit was well-timed. “It will be a welcome distraction from the nonsense going on in the UK,” they said.

The couple will arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday, marking their first return to Australia since 2018, months after their wedding and when the Duchess was newly pregnant with Prince Archie.

“That tour was a significant moment for them in terms of working together as a couple, as a team,” the source said. “They both love Australia and are really excited to return. Harry has spent a lot of time here and is really looking forward to meeting up with old friends.”

In 2003, the Duke spent part of his gap year living and working as a “jackaroo” on a cattle ranch in rural Queensland, which he considers one of the happiest periods of his life.

He was embedded with the Australian Defence Force in Darwin in 2015 while serving in the Army and has strong links with Invictus Australia, one of the founding nations of the Invictus Games, which hosted the event in 2018.

The visit Down Under has been in the diary for around a year but was originally planned on a much smaller scale. It was expanded in recent weeks when the dates coincided with various charitable and business invitations and the couple “saw an opportunity” to visit grassroots organisations that shared their values.

However, planned but unannounced walkabouts in Sydney and Melbourne had to be abandoned after an operational note was leaked, compromising security.

The couple are travelling with a relatively small team of eight, including their security detail, chiefs of staff and communications director.

They will also be accompanied by their own photographer, a tactic employed by the Prince and Princess of Wales on public engagements to control their image and ensure they own their archive.

The trip will have all the hallmarks of an official royal tour, with visits to a children’s hospital, a women’s refuge and meetings with indigenous groups.

Unlike their last visit to Australia, they are not representing the British government. They will travel under their own steam with their own private security detail and stay in hotels rather than at Admiralty House, the official residence of Sam Mostyn, Australia’s governor-general, who hosted the King and Queen in October 2024.

To the watching world, the couple’s 2018 Australia tour was a success, with large crowds turning out wherever they went and positive coverage hailing the glamorous newly-weds as breathing life into the monarchy.

However, tensions were already evident behind the scenes and both Prince Harry and the Duchess would later point to the trip as a turning point, when deep divisions with the rest of the Royal family began to show.

‘Grifters’

Eight years on, there are signs that the Australian public will not be quite so welcoming.

A comment piece in Sunday’s edition of Melbourne’s Herald Sun described the couple as “grifters” and criticised their “preachy brand of empowerment”.

Susie O’Brien, the writer, said: “Last time Meghan and Harry graced our shores, they were starry-eyed newly-weds and we were foolish enough to line the streets in our thousands.”

Referring to this week’s visit, she added: “We’re too busy being authentically broke and authentically tired to care about their inauthentic issues.”

A piece published in Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald asked: “Does anyone seriously believe they are coming to our shores for reasons other than financial and reputational?”

An online petition calling for no official support or taxpayer funding to be extended to the couple has attracted almost 45,000 signatures. It caused the couple’s spokesman to confirm that the visit was being privately funded.

However, police in both Victoria and New South Wales will provide security as part of their “core policing business” and to “ensure public safety is maintained”.

The Sussexes’ change in status does not appear to have quelled interest from Australian fashion designers, however, who are said to be queuing up to dress the Duchess.

Karen Gee, a Sydney-based designer whose brand was given a boost by the Duchess in 2018, said: “Meghan represents a modern woman with purpose, strength and grace – qualities we design for every day.”

During the visit, the Duke and Duchess will visit Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, opened by Elizabeth II in 2011, meet veteran families and learn about the local Aboriginal history.

They will also undertake solo engagements, with the Duchess visiting a women’s homeless shelter before conducting private business meetings as she prepares to launch her As Ever brand in Australia, the first test market outside the US.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry will visit the local Western Bulldogs football team to highlight the Movember campaign, which originated in Australia and promotes men’s health.

He will then fly to Canberra, where he will tour the Australian War Memorial, meet indigenous veterans, attend the daily Last Post ceremony and a reception for Invictus Australia.

On Thursday, the Duke will address the InterEdge leadership Summit. Tickets are still available and start at $997 (£523), reaching almost $17,000 (£9,000) for a “platinum” table of eight people.

‘So divine’

On Friday, the couple will be in Sydney, where they will take to the water to sail around the city’s harbour with Invictus Australia.

The Duchess will later address the 300 guests who have paid up to $3,199 (£1,680) to attend the Her Best Life weekend retreat at the InterContinental on Coogee Beach.

Gemma O’Neill, the co-host, had a Zoom call with the Duchess at the weekend, and gushed that she was “so divine”.

“It couldn’t have been any more, kind of, real,” she said. “I just immediately loved chatting to her. She was like, ‘let’s just have a real chat, woman to woman, let’s just go for it’.”

That evening, the couple will wrap up their tour with a visit to the Allianz Stadium to watch rugby team New South Wales Waratahs take on Moana Pasifika, later meeting the players in the dressing room.