Meghan Markle’s 2018 royal tour of Australia with Prince Harry was hailed as a triumph at the time, drawing adoring crowds and international headlines. But a new report suggests that behind the polished appearances, tensions and frustrations were mounting.
According to Radar Online, the Duchess of Sussex struggled with the demands of royal life during the trip. An insider claimed that Meghan’s frustration reached a breaking point when she “threw a cup of tea up in the air,” a gesture they described as a “small but dramatic act of rebellion.”
The couple’s three-week visit was their first major overseas tour after their wedding. They were met with enthusiastic receptions in Sydney, Melbourne, and Fiji, with Meghan and Harry praised for their warmth and relatability. Yet privately, the mood was far less harmonious.
“From the outside, it looked perfect, but behind the scenes, things were tense,” one insider said. “Markle was unhappy, Harry was fixated on negative comments online, and the staff were stuck in between.”
Royal author Tom Bower has also written about the tensions in his book Revenge. He revealed that Meghan invited her close Canadian friends Jessica and Ben Mulroney to join her in Australia. The move unsettled palace aides, who were already tasked with managing the high-stakes tour. According to Bower, officials saw Meghan’s approach as “abrasive” toward both staff and diplomats.
Palace staff were reportedly unprepared for Meghan’s Hollywood-style expectations of press handling and personal support. “She was dealing with huge pressure and wanted the kind of press handling she was used to in Hollywood. When that wasn’t delivered, her frustration showed,” Bower wrote.
The trip was seen at the time as a key moment in solidifying Meghan and Harry’s reputation as modernizers of the monarchy. The Duchess even announced her pregnancy during the tour, adding to the excitement. But in the years since, stories of behind-the-scenes difficulties have surfaced, painting a more complicated picture of what life inside “the firm” was like for Meghan.
While the couple officially stepped down from royal duties in 2020, the Australian visit remains one of their most high-profile joint appearances as working royals. To the public, it seemed to mark the beginning of a bright chapter. Privately, it may have signaled the start of deeper strains that later contributed to their break with the monarchy.