Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from their roles within the royal family less than two years after they tied the knot and the duchess officially became a working royal. The former Suits star only had a total of 72 days of royal duties, but something happened after the duke and duchess’s wedding that changed everything and proved Meghan had enough.

Now with King Charles and Queen Camilla having embarked on their royal tour to Australia, some are looking back at the Sussexes’ tour to the South Pacific as the time when Meghan’s princess dream was shattered.

Commentators agree Meghan and Harry’s tour was a ‘catalyst’ in why they stepped down

In October 2018 Meghan and Harry went on a 16-day trip to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tonga.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Papaiouru Marae for a formal powhiri and luncheon in Rotorua, New Zealand | Karwai Tang/WireImage

Crowds came out in drove to see the Sussexes and the response to them being in each country was overwhelmingly positive, therefore the tour was deemed a big success. However, once they got back to England, Meghan did not receive the praise she thought she should get from other members of the royal family over how well the trip went.

Daily Mail royal editor Russell Myers told Sky News Australia, that the trip “broke Harry and Meghan and was one of the catalysts for them leaving the royal family. She and Harry had expected they would get much more praise and recognition from that royal tour.”

Royal reporter Angela Mollard added that Meghan grew very frustrated following the trip because she realized then that “she was part of a big institution and she wasn’t the hero of it. She was a cog in the wheel and that became clear.”

Author says that’s when the ‘princess’ dream changed for Meghan and things began to ‘rot’

Meghan Markle visits the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotoua, New Zealand | Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Royal Biographer Ingrid Seward also spoke about Meghan and Harry’s South Pacific tour and how the duchess was upset that she wasn’t personally recognized by other royals for her efforts. According to Seward, Meghan enjoyed the whole idea of being a princess but wanted to be the star and certainly not told what to do, and that’s when things began to unravel.

Speaking to The Sun, Seward said while “Meghan enjoyed playing the part of a princess, I think it was a bit of a shock [that] she was being told what to do. She was being told where to go and she was being told how to do it. She was taking a starring role in the actual size of the monarchy. She was just a little pinpoint. At that moment in Australia, she was in a starring role but she wasn’t really, she was just a cog in the wheel.”

The author added: “I think it was an eye opener for [Meghan] that she was always going to be a cog in the wheel because she was married to the No. 2 man [and] not the No. 1 man, which would have been [Prince] William. I agree with the royal commentators, that was definitely when the rot began to fester a little bit.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down 439 days after their South Pacific tour ended.