source : the age
Sydney-based designer Karen Gee was waiting to see whether Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, would wear her Priscilla dress for her first Australian appearance.
It wasn’t until this masthead sent Gee a photo of Meghan greeting children at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital that the designer favoured by Australia’s corporate high-flyers could confirm the wardrobe choice.
According to Gee, Meghan has a number of pieces from her collection, including the $1250 Priscilla in the label’s signature bonded fabric.
For her first day of her Australian visit, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has ditched the stealth-wealth style she has perfected in California and revived her royal polish.
At the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Meghan is wearing the Priscilla dress made by Sydney designer Karen Gee, a sleeveless dress with flared skirt in a dark navy and regimental gold buttons.
Meghan wore a structured white shift dress by Gee during her first appearance of her official Australian tour in 2018.
On that occasion, the Meghan Effect was at full strength, with inquiries crashing Gee’s website.
The Duke and Duchess spent about 15 minutes chatting to fans at the hospital and hugging patients.
Lily, 4, made a sign welcoming the couple and said it took about five or six minutes to whip up.
“I was very excited,” Lily said.
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were met by hundreds of cheering fans at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne at lunchtime as the couple kicked off a four-day visit to Australia.
The pair met with patients in the same hospital that Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, first opened in 1963.
Novalie, 12, from Geelong told this masthead she “loved” meeting the couple. She said the Duchess wished her luck with her leukaemia battle and congratulated her for being brave.
Harry and Meghan are at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Watch below.
Large crowds have lined walkways overhead as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talk to sick children and their families.
Prince Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, opened the Royal Children’s Hospital on Flemington Road in 1963, calling it a “monument to Victoria’s humanity and public spirit”.
His parents followed in 1985, when Diana, Princess of Wales, and Prince Charles visited.
The original building has since been replaced, but the hospital remains on the same stretch of road – reopened by the Queen in 2011.
Today, Prince Harry will return under different circumstances. No longer working royals, Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex will kick off their Australian visit – a quasi-royal tour – at the same site, which has served as a consistent stop on royal itineraries.
Patients picked to meet the pair were only told this morning and have started making their way to the hospital entrance.
Courtney and her son, Archer, 11 are at the hospital for a clinical visit from Koo Wee Rup. When she heard about the visit, she decided to pop down and secured a place at the front.
“It’s something to do while we’re in here. Get a bit of excitement for the day,” Courtney said.
Royal watchers may get a brief glimpse of the LA-based pair, who are expected to arrive around lunchtime, after jetting in from Los Angeles overnight.
Six-year-old Prince Archie and four-year-old Princess Lilibet are not travelling with their parents.
Schools in California are currently in term, as has been the case during Harry and Meghan’s most recent quasi-royal tours overseas: Jordan in February 2026, Canada’s Invictus Games in February 2025, and Colombia in August 2024.
Aside from personal holidays, the last time we know the Sussexes travelled overseas as a family of four was when Harry and Meghan took Archie and Lilibet to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.
Although the children weren’t seen publicly, Harry detailed the trip – the first and only time the late Queen, who died aged 96 that September, met Lilibet in person – in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
Harry and Meghan’s visit to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney this week is not an official royal tour, their camp insists.
It can’t be anyway. Their high-profile royal resignation in 2020, which saw them flee across the Atlantic and set up shop in the affluent Los Angeles suburb of Montecito, means they can no longer travel to this key Commonwealth realm on behalf of the British monarchy.
But aside from the lack of government-hosted functions and public meet and greets, what’s listed on their itinerary doesn’t look too different from their notorious 16-day trip to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga in 2018.
They will visit local organisations that support veterans and community mental health, and Harry is notably jetting to Canberra tomorrow to support Invictus Australia, the non-profit that’s an offshoot of his passion project, the Invictus Games.
Here’s what we know about the couple’s trip, including their full itinerary.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first visit to Australia since 2018.
The couple touched down in Melbourne this morning, flying in business class on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles. They were whisked away in private cars shortly after landing, leaving Melbourne Airport’s VIP arrivals area with little fanfare.
Their first of a series of business and philanthropic engagements in their capacity as private citizens will commence later this morning at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Stay with us as we bring you rolling news updates this week as Harry and Meghan travel to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. As with anything the former senior working royals do, the coming days won’t be uneventful.
