Prince Harry Meghan Markle
Royals

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s £246k South Africa tour ‘most expensive royal trip’

The trip resulted in considerable controversy for the former senior royals

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s 2019 tour of South Africa reportedly cost the taxpayer a whopping £246,000.

This is the most expensive royal trip between 2019-2020, royal financial records reveal.

Costs include flights to and from the nation, as well as travel costs for their accompanying staff.

The couple took their then four-month-old son Archie on his first overseas royal trip.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle proudly showed off little Archie (Credit: SplashNews.com)

They toured the country over ten days, visiting various landmarks and charities.

Here they famously introduced Archie to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Harry went on to visit Angola, Malawai and Botswana.

Read more: Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank announce they are expecting a baby

The trip became a controversial one.

It came just days after Meghan filed legal action against the Mail on Sunday regarding the published letters between Meghan and her father.

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Meghan and Harry during their South African trip (Credit: Cover Images)

During their tour, Harry then released a statement hitting out against British tabloids.

The Palace later confirmed that he had filed lawsuits against two papers.

He has accused them of intercepting his voicemail messages.

Read more: Meghan Markle criticised by Donald Trump over voting video

They were also filmed throughout their trip for the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.

In it an almost tearful Meghan complained about media intrusion.

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Prince Harry admitted on the trip that he and Prince William are on ‘different paths’ (SplashNews.com)

She told British journalist Tom Bradby: “Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant you are really vulnerable.

“That was made really challenging. And when you have a newborn, especially as a woman it’s a lot.

“When you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom and trying to be a newlywed.

“It’s…thank you again for asking. Because not many people have asked if I’m OK.

“But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”

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Prince Charles trip to Oman cost over £200k (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Meanwhile, Harry confirmed to Tom that he and older brother William have drifted apart.

The Duke said: “But look, we’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers — and we’re certainly on different paths at the moment.

“But I’ll certainly always be there for him as I know he’ll always be there for me.

“We don’t see each other as much as we used to because we’re so busy.

Meghan admits she was warned British tabloids 'will destroy your life' | ITV News

“But I love him dearly and the majority of the stuff is created out of nothing. But as brothers, you have good days, you have bad days.”

The second most expensive royal trip was Prince Charles’ two day visit to Oman, which reportedly cost £210,345.

Whereas, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s trip to Pakistan came in at £117,116.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor