Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive for four-day visit Down Under | Today Show Australia

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Very good morning to you, and [music] thank you for joining us this Tuesday.

[00:00:02]We begin with breaking news this hour out of Melbourne, where Harry and Meghan have touched down, kick-starting their four-day visit to Australia.

[00:00:10]Let's go live to Isabella Staskowski, who's at Melbourne Airport. Isa, good morning to you. So, they let them in, eh?

[00:00:17]>> [laughter] >> They let them in, Karl and Sarah. Good morning. They have touched down here in Melbourne. They have been warmly welcomed. They took a regular Qantas flight, in fact, from LA here to Melbourne. I can tell you they were sitting up at the pointy end in business class, so that would have been pretty nice. Uh they touched down on here on the tarmac just before 6:00. They were then whisked away in some Range Rovers, and they have been taken away, but we did speak to quite a number of people who were sitting on that flight with them. For the most part, they were pretty excited. We even spoke to some people who sat next to them and right behind them.

[00:00:50]Well, until we got off the plane, was the only time we realized that that was them, so. Yeah, it's just In LA, you see it all the time, though, so you're kind of used to it.

[00:00:57]>> [laughter] >> So, what did they look like? Were they just casually getting off the plane?

[00:01:00]Yeah, were we casual? Yeah, they look great. Yeah, they look great. I said, "I hope you have a lovely uh time in Melbourne." And I'm sure you'll enjoy Sydney, and um we spoke about their children, and that they were here for a couple of days. Do you think it's exciting that they're that they're here?

[00:01:13]>> exciting. It's so exciting. Everyone was um very excited to see them on board.

[00:01:17]They they they were super friendly around the toilet areas when they went to the toilet. They basically just slipped off uh pretty quickly off the aircraft, and then security, customs, border force people were there to meet them, and then they took them in their own personal uh vehicles off the uh airside, and away they went.

[00:01:35]Look, a pretty jam-packed schedule while they are here in Australia. We know that today they're going to the Royal Children's Hospital. Uh for the next few days, a number of other charity visits as well. But on Friday, I can tell you that they will be in Sydney. So, I mean, maybe a visit to the Today show studio in Sydney with you guys. What do you say? Well, nothing like being accosted on the way to the toilet 38,000 ft by Aussies. If she brings her jam, I'll take her into the studio. I don't know. I have a craving for jam at the moment.

[00:02:01]>> All right. [laughter] Thanks.

[00:02:03]You're welcome. Thank you. Well, Prince Harry and Meghan are officially kicking off their four-day trip to Australia this morning, starting in Melbourne with a visit to the Royal Children's Hospital. To tell us what we can expect these few days, let's bring in news.com.au royal correspondent Bronty Bronty Coy in Melbourne. Bronty, good morning to you, and thanks for your time. Good morning. So, look, it's a busy start for the couple in Melbourne today. What can we expect beyond that visit to the hospital? It will be a busy start, and it's their first time back in almost 8 years, so there'll be a lot of eyes on this visit. They'll be going to the hospital, which really follows in the footsteps of the work Prince Harry's mom, the late Diana, did. She visited that hospital, also and Queen Elizabeth II, so that's where it will all begin today.

[00:02:44]Uh they'll Meghan will then be attending a women's refuge shelter on her own, and then the pair of them will visit the Australian National Veterans Art Museum, which really sets the tone for the visit, which is going to be focusing on uh veterans affairs, mental health, women's issues, and also mental health with youth. Yeah, and this is all these are all causes in their wheelhouse, right? So, they're all happening behind closed doors from what we understand. Is that right? They're not doing any sort of public meet or greets. Well, that's it. It has a lot of the hallmarks of a royal visit, and again, it will conjure up a lot of contrast with their visit here in 2018, but the public walkabout uh aspect is a real royal tour feature, and so that's not something they'll be doing for a variety of reasons. The first of which is that it is a visit as private citizens and not as working members of the monarchy, despite the fact they have the titles still. Uh but the second part of that is obviously for security reasons. It's very hard to uh cost a lot of money to secure areas like that when you have large um groups of public um public members there. So, that's been There's a couple of reasons why that will be happening, but there still should be opportunities for people to spot them going in and out of engagements. And I guess Bronty, as you know, the biggest difference as well between this visit and the 2018 visit is the public interest in this couple. It doesn't seem to be there this time. I mean, they haven't even sold out some of their $1,000 tickets to those private events. Do you think that sentiment might change, you know, now that they're on the ground in Australia, or are people just not interested in these two?

[00:04:04]I think the truth is that no one really knows exactly what to expect in these scenarios, because Harry and Meghan are quite a rare beast here, because they were senior uh royal family members.

[00:04:13]They were here, as we've said, in 2018.

[00:04:15]I covered that tour. There were thousands of people out to greet them.

[00:04:18]Uh even just down at the harbor, those iconic photos. This time around, we've never really had royal family members in the position that they're in. So, when they undertake these visits, there's not really a blueprint of what to expect. Uh there has been interest in the way that, of course, every they go anywhere or do anything, it there's always the critics will always uh dig down on that, and their fans will then passionately defend them. So, in that way, they've it's another example of that. There's been a lot of headlines generated already ahead of them even arriving. Uh so, I think it'll be very much a watch and act to see just how much people respond to them. But, you know, once they arrive, they're leaning into the areas they really care about, as we said at the top there, particularly Harry with his Invictus Games and the veterans affairs.

[00:04:56]And and that's a community he knows really well. He's been back to Australia a number of times. He has a lot of friends here. And I've also been told he's particularly excited to get back here and catch up with them. And I guess after Melbourne, a quick trip to Sydney.

[00:05:08]Yes, we will see them on Friday. They'll be back at the harbor, as I mentioned. A a real contrast to the last time they were here. That will be interesting.

[00:05:13]They'll be with the Invictus Games there, and then attending a wheelchair games. And Karl will be front and center for that, won't you, Karl?

[00:05:20]>> the t-shirt. [laughter] Thank you so much, Bronty. Appreciate it. And the cabs.