Prince Harry and Meghan Markle surprised journalists with a rude comment on their way back from a lengthy tour in Australasia.
In 2018, just five months after their wedding in Windsor, Meghan and Harry embarked on the 16-day royal tour.
Speaking on the latest episode of the A Right Royal Podcast, former royal correspondent Valentine Low relived an awkward moment with the couple as they flew on the plane back from Tonga to Sydney.
Mr Low told hosts Andrea Caamano and Emmy Griffiths and HELLO!’s royal editor Emily Nash: “We were flying from Tonga back to Sydney. And often on these tours, there comes a point towards the end, when the royal might come back to the back of the plane and have a chat with us off the record, you know, not for printing, but it’s a way of making bonds.
“It’s a way of keeping us sweet. It’s a way of having informal contact. And we were promised that he or they would come to the back of the plane, and it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen and this was a four or five-hour flight, ‘When’s this gonna happen?’”
He added: “Then we were buckling up for the descent and we landed. And it hadn’t happened. And only after we landed, they came back into the back of the plane.
“And Harry was slightly in front of Meghan, she was slightly behind him. And she didn’t say much.
“She did make some strange remark about us wanting to get back for our Sunday lunch. And it was completely bizarre. But it’s what he said that was memorable.
“He said, ‘Thanks very much for coming, even though you weren’t invited.’ And we thought, ‘What?’”
As well as being a prominent joint trip during their time as working royals, the tour of Australasia also holds a special memory for Meghan and Harry.
On the eve of the first day of the tour came Meghan’s pregnancy announcement with their first child, Prince Archie.
During the 16-day tour in October 2018, the couple headed to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.
Expanding on the tour, Mr Low went on to add how he and other royal correspondents in attendance reacted to the comment.
Less than two years after this trip, Meghan and Harry announced that they were to step down as working royals.
The couple’s announcement came in January 2020, with their final engagements taking place two months later.
Harry and Meghan now live in the US with Archie and their second child, who was born in America, two-year-old Princess Lilibet.
