PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle’s Australia tour six years ago was when the “rot set in”, a royal expert has claimed.

The comments came as King Charles jetted off to Sydney on Friday and is visiting the Australian capital Canberra this weekend.

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at Dubbo Airport, Australia on October 17, 2018Credit: Getty – Pool

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King Charles embracing New Zealand rugby players at a reception last monthCredit: Getty

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Charles and Kamilla meet koalas Kao and Matilda in Adelaide in 2012Credit: Getty
He will then make a State Visit to Samoa in the south Pacific before attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Royal commentator Ingrid Seward told The Sun the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s trip to Australia in 2018 was the high point of Meghan’s brief time as a working royal.

She said: “It was a monumental trip when Harry and Meghan went in 2018, and Meghan announced her pregnancy when she was there.

“I think the Australians were very flattered by that and she played her part brilliantly. They were young and fresh.

“When the late Queen looked at it she thought, my goodness, we really have got two young people here who are going to be so beneficial for the Commonwealth.

“But I think Meghan wasn’t seeing it quite like that. I think she enjoyed the adulation.

“She enjoyed playing the part of the princess as she saw it. But I also think it was a it was a bit of a shock.

“She was being told what to do. She was being told where to go, and she was being told how to do it.

“And she wasn’t taking a starring role.”

Seward claimed that the experience was an “eye-opener” for Meghan in that she was always “just going to be the cog in the wheel”.

King Charles touches down in Australia to kick off ‘exhausting’ 9-day tour after doctors ‘paused’ cancer treatment
She added: “She was married to the number two man, not the number one man, which would have been William.

“That was definitely when the rot began to sort of fester a little bit.”

But Ingrid said that Meghan and Harry won’t be on Charles’s mind when he visits Australia.

She said: “He’s there to do a job, and he will do it to the very best of his ability, which will be brilliant.

“I don’t think he’ll think about any past trips, or when his younger son was there.

“He might think about trips when when his mother was there, and his father, because people will probably mention that to him.

“But I don’t think Meghan and Harry are going to play any kind of part in this at all.”

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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan walk down the stairs of Sydney’s iconic Opera House to meet people on October 16, 2018Credit: AFP/Getty

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Charles is ambushed by bikini-clad Playboy model Jane Priest, 26, on another tripCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

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Charles with Australian PM Anthony Albanese at Buckingham Palace last yearCredit: AFP

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Harry and Meghan lay ferns and a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior on October 28, 2018, in Wellington, New ZealandCredit: Getty – Pool
Seward also said that “extremely rude” lefty Aussies shunning King Charles do not represent the people.

It comes amid mounting calls from some Aussie politicians for the country to become a republic with an elected head of state.

Six state premiers from around the country have snubbed an invitation to greet Charles and Camilla at a reception in Canberra.

Charles’s assistant private secretary Dr Nathan Ross told republican campaigners it is “a matter for the Australian public to decide”.

Royal expert Ingrid Seward told The Sun: “Small sections of Australian society are using this as a showcase for the republican movement.

“They always do this. It’s just I think they’ve got a bit more attention than usual this time.

“Half a dozen politicians have decided that they don’t wish to meet the King and Queen.

“Well, that’s up to them, and I think it’s extremely rude, but Charles is used to that kind of thing.

“I’m sure he doesn’t enjoy it, but he’s not going to make a fuss about it.

“The important thing is, it’s not necessarily the left wing politicians who matter.

“It’s actually the people of Australia. There’s more more support for the monarchy than there was there, you know.

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The future monarch poses in front of a wedge-tailed eagle in Alice Springs in 2005Credit: Reuters

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Charles and Camilla looking ‘stoked’ with some Gold Coast surfers in 2018Credit: Getty Images – Getty

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Youngsters wave Australian flags for Charles in Adelaide in 2012Credit: Getty
“Politicians want to make, you know a little mark. They always pick things like that because it’s so high profile.”

Around one in three Aussies want the country to become a republic, according to YouGov polling.

But a majority have a “positive view” of the royals – and Charles is more popular than any Aussie politician.

In numbers: What do Aussies think of the royals?

One in three Australians want the country to become a republic as soon as possible (32%)
But a similar number think that the monarchy is good for the country (34%)
Charles is more popular than any Aussie politician – with 50% viewing him positively
A whopping 69% of Aussies have a positive view of heir-to-the-throne Prince William
But scandal-hit Prince Andrew has a brutal net approval rating of minus 48%

Source: YouGov Australia

Seward revealed a key difference between Charles and the late Queen which will help him win over a new generation of Aussies.

She said: “He’s incredibly tactile, which is something that that surprised some people over here after the late Queen.

“She was never tactile. It just wasn’t in her psyche. But King Charles, reaches over the heads of the crowd to shake someone’s hand.

“He, you know, he hugs people. He lets people hug him. I think that he’s going to really enjoy this, and I think it is significant.”

Charles’s warm nature was evident at a Buckingham Palace reception for the New Zealand women’s rugby team last month.

Footage of Charles giving the Black Ferns a bear hug went viral – charming many Kiwis.

CROWN UNDER

Charles is set to “pause” his cancer treatment for 11 days during the visit to Australia and Samoa.

His doctors are reportedly happy for him to briefly stop his treatment while he is away.

The King will start treatment again as soon as he gets back from his trip.

Seward said: “This is a very important trip for for the King, because it’s his first trip to Australia as monarch.

“And it’s a place that he’s always loved. He spent some time at school there during a break from Gordonstoun.

“He really enjoyed it, and he’s been going back to Australia many, many times since.

From Playboy model ambush to foiled ‘gun’ attack… Charles’s strangest moments Down Under

Charles’s previous trips to Australia have not been without their bizarre moments.

He was ambushed by bikini-clad Playboy model Jane Priest, 26, while swimming in the sea off a beach in Perth in 1979.

Priest later told the Evening Standard: “I actually went and put my hands on his chest to give him a kiss.

“Charles said: ‘No, I can’t touch you, I can’t touch you.’ I was in my mid-twenties, here was one of the most powerful men in the world.

“He was absolutely adorable. I was totally overawed for those couple of minutes.”

Prince Charles, as he was then known, was later targeted by protester David Kang at an Australia Day speech in Sydney in 1994.

Kang, then 23, fired two blank shots from a starting pistol – but for a moment onlookers thought he had tried to kill Charles.

Veteran Sun royal snapper Arthur Edwards recounted the “terrifying” attack at our first ever Royal Exclusive show.

Arthur said: “I was walking back to start my pool – when you assembled to take photographs of an event.

“I heard these two shots go off – I ran around the front and saw a pile of bodies.

“I thought, my God, Charles is under that. I rushed up onto the stage and this policeman threw me right off.”

But Arthur said he glimpsed an unruffled Charles straightening his suit and cufflinks before the prince was bundled away.

Kang planned the stunt as a protest against the treatment of desperate Cambodian refugees in Australian detention camps.

He jumped a fence and ran onto the stage – firing a shot at Charles as the prince walked towards the lectern.

The 23-year-old fired another shot before he crashed into the lectern and was tackled to the ground by cops.

Fifteen policemen and bodyguards piled onto Kang while the unhurt Charles was pulled off the stage.

Onlooker Ian Kiernan said Charles was “cool as a cucumber” throughout the stunt.

Charles’s senior personal protection officer Superintendent Colin Trimming was praised for throwing himself in front of the prince.

Kang was found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service.

He is now a successful barrister in Sydney and is married with two children.

In a 2005 interview, he said: “What happened 11 years ago was an extremely traumatic experience.

“I have certainly moved on in my life and now I have become a barrister here in Sydney.”

“It’s just a really beautiful place, and I think he really looks forward to going.

“The only downside is that it is very exhausting, leaving one place and literally flying for hours to another.

“You’re in a completely different time zone. I think that’s what’s difficult.

“And Charles has his cancer problems – he’ll be 76 in November, it’s not the easiest.”

Seward added: “He has his his late mother’s sense of duty, and however he’s feeling, he’s going to go ahead.

“Charles probably would have gone ahead and done everything and done an old fashioned royal tour. But his doctor said absolutely not.

“I think it is very important for him, but there’s no point in going there and sort of becoming exhausted.”

Inside Charles’ cancer fightback

By Matt Wilkinson, Royal Editor

IT was an announcement that sent shockwaves around the world – King Charles had cancer and would be stepping back from public-facing duty just 16 months into his reign.

For this no-nonsense, keep-calm and-carry-on Monarch — eldest son of the even more hard-headed Prince Philip — to admit he had to ease back on his workload meant one thing: it was bad.

Dutiful Camilla, 77, stood in for the King when he stepped back from a string of engagements including the Royal Maundy Service at Worcester Cathedral and a solo two-day visit to Belfast, both in March.

But fast forward just six months from the announcement and incredibly he is now fit enough to travel 10,000 miles for a gruelling tour of Australia and Samoa.

As one source close to the King, 75, told me: “The sun wasn’t shining in February but it is shining now”.

The King’s aides were keen to point out when he made his public comeback at a cancer hospital on April 30 that not all recovery programmes for cancer patients are the same.

Yet while he is “not yet out of the woods”, according to those in his inner circle, they add there is “great optimism” and treatment has gone “better than anyone would have thought”.

Today the details of exactly how the Royal Household put our much-loved Monarch back together again are revealed.

From exactly why he was pulled from duty to the pioneering treatments that meant he never lost his hair — and the real reason his wayward son, Harry, was given an audience of just 30 minutes.

Charles’ ordeal began in January when he revealed he needed a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.

He decided to allow the public to know what he was going through, which resulted in a huge outpouring of sympathy.

Charles was touched by the public reaction but also significantly buoyed when it was revealed the NHS website received 11 times more daily visits from men with similar concerns.

But then his condition would take a turn for the worse.

Charles was due to spend two nights in the London Clinic — where Kate was also being treated — so when he spent a third night in care, people started to become concerned.

Those worries were realised when tests revealed cancer.

But rather than hide this devastating news from the public he decided that following the supportive reaction to his prostate diagnosis he would allow it to be made public.

A carefully constructed plan inspired by Operation Bubble which protected the late Queen from Covid-19 was thrown into action.

He would have weekly treatment in London and factor in vital periods of rest time at Sandringham, Highgrove and Windsor.

But his health plan was thrown into turmoil when Prince Harry announced he would jet from Los Angeles to see his father.

While the King delayed his helicopter flight from Buckingham Palace to Sandringham, his wayward son was given just 30 minutes of his company at Clarence House.

Plans were in place to avoid the King contacting a secondary infection and Harry flying 5,000 miles on a jet was not ideal.

Aides prevented Harry, 39, joining his father at Sandringham fearing “we’d never get rid of him” and he needed to reduce his social contact while undergoing cancer treatment.

During this time a Freedom of Information request revealed the Department for Culture and Media had begun procurement for the King’s potential funeral — although sources say this is not unusual.

Suggestions that William had been lined up as a potential Prince Regent if the King was unable to carry out the position have been denied by Buckingham Palace.

But the King was withdrawn from all public duty for 103 days although he continued reading government red boxes.

It can now be revealed the decision to postpone his public facing role was made as a “precautionary measure” because of the King’s diminished immune response to other diseases.

The Royal Household copied Covid-style protocols — or tiers imposed by the Government during the pandemic — to minimise secondary infection such as seasonal cold or flu.

A source said: “We had to minimise potential risk from other people, not because he couldn’t do the job.”

But as winter turned into spring and weather became warmer it meant they could relax the Covid-style tiers.

This was demonstrated when the King emerged from the Easter Sunday service and was greeted by 60 well-wishers at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Just days earlier, the monarch and his team had received news that the treatment had gone better than anyone could have expected.

One insider said: “He was raring to go after the positive results and didn’t want to hang around any longer”.

It meant the King told aides that a trip to Australia, seen as the most important tour a monarch will ever take, must go ahead in the autumn, as first revealed by The Sun.