Is Meghan Markle Moving To Australia? Duchess Allegedly Targets 'Serious Money' In Upcoming Tour

Meghan Markle will return to Australia later this month for a string of private and public events in Sydney, where the duchess is said to be eyeing 'serious money' opportunities and positioning herself as a potential 'Queen of Hearts' for the country, according to an unnamed source. The trip, confirmed in part by her team via People magazine, will see Meghan headline a three-day women's retreat from 17 to 19 April and carry out other business and philanthropic engagements with Prince Harry. This will be their first visit to Australia since 2018, when the couple toured the country as working royals amid considerable public interest, in a trip widely regarded as a high point in their relationship with the Commonwealth.

A spokesperson for the couple told People that the retreat is only one part of a broader Australian schedule, saying Meghan and Prince Harry will undertake 'a number of private, business and philanthropic engagements' in mid-April. No detailed itinerary has been publicly released, and there has been no official comment from Australian authorities or local partners on what those additional events might involve. Until more is confirmed, any talk of specific projects or deals remains speculative and should be treated with caution.

Meghan Markle Eyes Australia's Market And Brand Potential

Six years on from their decision to step back from royal duties, the couple are now operating as independent public figures, building commercial ventures and philanthropic brands outside the formal structures of the monarchy. Meghan has agreed to headline the Her Best Life podcast's 'girls' weekend' retreat at the InterContinental Sydney Coogee, a beachside luxury hotel, where she is expected to appear as the star attraction. The event is pitched as a female empowerment and lifestyle gathering, with her involvement announced in March.

Behind the scenes, Meghan is said to view the visit as a strategic test of her personal brand in a country that has long been both fascinated and ambivalent about the monarchy. 'She says there's a huge market to tap into there, with serious money to be made,' the source claimed, adding that she is 'ready to throw herself into it.'

The same source suggested Meghan has already moved to protect future product lines, saying she has 'secured a bunch of trademarks so that she can launch her products'. The report did not specify which trademarks, which categories they cover, or whether they are registered in Australia or elsewhere, and these claims have not been independently verified. As with much of the couple's commercial planning, hard details are thin, and the picture will only come into focus once actual products or services appear on the market.

Still, the direction of travel is clear enough. Meghan has been steadily building lifestyle and content ventures in recent years, and Australia offers a well-off, English-speaking audience, a strong consumer market, and a long-standing cultural curiosity about the royal family. If she can translate that into sales or long-term partnerships, this trip may be about more than photo opportunities on the harbour.

A Bid to Become Australia's 'Queen of Hearts'?

More provocatively, the same source claimed that Meghan 'really feels she can become the country's new Queen of Hearts'. It is a loaded phrase, long associated with the late Princess Diana and, more broadly, with royal figures who cut through formal protocol to connect with the public's emotions.

The source went further, saying Meghan hopes to be embraced by Australia's anti-monarchist sentiment. 'It's no secret that a lot of people in Australia aren't exactly fans of the royal family,' they said. 'In Meghan's view, that automatically means people there will be far more receptive to her and Harry than they are in England.' That is a bold reading of a complex political landscape in a country where debates about the monarchy, republicanism and Indigenous recognition are deeply intertwined and hardly reducible to a popularity contest.

According to the same account, Meghan is 'convinced that they can position themselves as the modern alternative to the royals, and this little tour is a chance to test the waters'. It is a description that echoes criticisms that have followed the couple since their departure from royal duties.

There has been no public response from Buckingham Palace to the reported comments, nor any official pushback from pro-monarchy groups in Australia. Palace aides traditionally avoid engaging with off-the-record briefings about the Sussexes, and Australian republican and monarchist campaigners tend to focus on constitutional arguments rather than personalities.

Whether Meghan's reported ambition to become a kind of unofficial 'Queen of Hearts' helps or hinders those broader debates will depend less on her marketing strategy and more on how Australians respond when she steps back onto their soil this month.