Meghan and Harry’s upcoming trip coincides with a major milestone for Prince William and Kate Middleton

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming trip to Australia, coupled with the news of a raft of new TV and film projects, risks riling senior members of the royal family, a royal expert has warned.

The Sussexes are due to land in Oz later this month for the first time since 2018 and royal author Richard Palmer says the pair might see the highly publicised visit as a way of silencing critics who have spent years “putting them down”.

But however well-intentioned their plans might be, Harry and Meghan also risk overshadowing some key moments for the royal family back in the UK.

The couple’s upcoming trip is shaping up to be one of the biggest royal events of the year(Image: Amy Katz/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

“Their Australia trip is one of, if not the, most anticipated royal events of the year,” says Richard. “They want to prove their critics wrong so will be hoping it is a huge success. If it is, it will be Meghan’s revenge.”

After landing Down Under, the Duke and Duchess will undertake “a number of private, business, and philanthropic engagements”, including Meghan’s guest appearance at a women-only weekend retreat, and Harry’s keynote speech discussing workplace mental health at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit.

There’s also been talk of Meghan launching her As Ever lifestyle brand over there.

However, April is already an extremely busy month for the monarchy, with the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis’ eighth birthday and his parents’ 15th wedding anniversary all falling within the same seven-day period. With this in mind, there are fears the Sussexes’ trip could also be seen as a form of payback – not least because it will coincide with Kate and William’s special day.

There is talk of Meghan launching her lifestyle brand As Ever while in Australia(Image: INSTAGRAM/aseverofficial/Compartes Chocolate)

“There still seems to be an awful lot of tension with other members of the family and the royal household,” says Richard. “Clearly Buckingham Palace and the Sussex camp are speaking, so there’ll be a certain amount of deconflicting going on.

“But I think it will also annoy the King and other members of the family if, as seems likely, Meghan and Harry garner a lot of media attention while they’re out in Australia, and then that overshadows whatever’s going on back here.”

Of course, since stepping down as working royals in 2020, Harry and Meghan have free rein to organise their diaries as they wish. But for the remaining working royals, that means any scheduling conflicts are no longer a consideration for the California-based couple – however ill-timed.

“One of their biggest frustrations when they were working members of the whole family was that they had to defer to the King and Queen, and to William and Kate,” says Richard. “They found it really frustrating having to fit in with everybody else when, as far as they were concerned, they were the big box office attraction. But from Meghan and Harry’s point of view, they don’t have to worry about it any longer.”

Richard says there is lingering tension between the various family factions(Image: UK Press via Getty Images)

With the Sussexes flying solo and free of the usual rules and regulations governing royals’ money-making through private ventures, the stage seems set for a major – and lucrative – Sussex charm offensive in Australia.

“There’s definitely a market for them and for the As Ever brand over there, but as they do over here, they divide the public,” says Richard. “There are many staunch monarchists who really don’t like them and see them as having betrayed the monarchy, but there are lots of people who have sympathy with them, who think they’re glamorous and will buy into the idea of these products.”

As well as the upcoming trip to Oz – which they’re expected to make without Prince Archie, six, and four-year-old Princess Lilibet – it also emerged last week that their Archewell Productions company was working on at least one new TV show and two new films with Netflix.

One of the most talked-about is a polo-themed series described by Deadline as an “upstairs-downstairs drama” revolving around the “messy dynamics” between two rival teams and their familial owners in the high-flying equestrian town of Wellington, Florida.

It is being made with the production company behind hit shows Gossip Girl and The OC, and written by Francisca Hu, who worked on the 2017 Dynasty reboot. Confirming the news on X, she wrote, “Something horse-y and wildly fun this way comes! Very excited about this one and obsessed with everyone involved.”

Harry previously made a documentary for Netflix on his beloved sport(Image: Getty)

PR and entertainment expert Lynn Carratt tells us the Sussexes’ shift from documentary-style shows into “glossy, character-led entertainment” is another huge step away from their former royal roles.

“They’ve very clearly repositioned themselves as media and entertainment figures in their own right, rather than working royals bound by protocol,” says Lynn. “If both the Australia visit and new entertainment ventures land well, it’ll certainly strengthen their positioning as global media figures.”

According to Richard, Harry and Meghan’s publicity drive is unlikely to go down well with the King, especially amid growing talk of a possible father-son reunion ahead of next year’s Invictus Games.

He says, “They were heading in that commercial direction a long time before they actually quit, but I don’t think the late Queen, Charles and William were ever keen on that idea.”

With royal tensions still simmering, it sounds like Harry and Meghan’s latest move risks jeopardising already-fragile relations at the worst possible time.