How Is Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Australia Trip Being Funded?
How Is Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Australia Trip Being Funded?
Helen MurphyTue, April 14, 2026 at 6:16 PM UTC
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.Credit: Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty -
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are on a trip to Australia, their first time visiting the continent in more than seven years
The couple last visited the continent in 2018 as part of a royal tour
They stepped back as working members of the royal family 18 months later, moving from the U.K. to California.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's trip to Australia is in full swing, as the couple makes their return to the continent after more than seven years.
During their visit, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to attend a variety of private, business and philanthropic engagements, including Meghan headlining Her Best Life podcast's "girls weekend" retreat in Sydney and Harry serving as a keynote speaker on workplace mental health at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne.
Prince Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, last visited Australia in October 2018, on an official royal tour that included attending Harry's Invictus Games in Sydney. On that trip, the couple announced Meghan's pregnancy with their first child, Prince Archie.
In early 2020, the couple announced they would step back as working members of the royal family and moved to California.
When the couple announced that they would step back as senior members of the royal family, they specified that they would “no longer receive funding through the Sovereign Grant."
Royal trips are typically funded through the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which is described as “the annual funding mechanism of the monarchy that covers the work of the Royal Family in support of HM The Queen, including expenses to maintain official residences and workspaces."
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Prince Harry and Meghan's current trip to Australia is being privately funded, PEOPLE understands.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their 2018 trip to Australia.Credit: Getty Images
When he spoke with Oprah Winfrey in a bombshell tell-all interview in 2021, one year after the couple's announcement that they were stepping back from royal duties, Prince Harry said the royal family "literally cut me off financially," adding that he had the money left to him by his late mother, Princess Diana.
"Without that, we wouldn't have been able to do this," he said, referring to the family's move to California, where they bought a home in the Montecito neighborhood.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s trip to Australia comes after they traveled to Jordan in February. That two-day humanitarian visit was made in partnership with the World Health Organization, not on behalf of the U.K. government.
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The couple's children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, did not join them in Australia.
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