Australia Is Actually a Really Significant Place for Royal Babies
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry had just touched down in Australia when they announced they are expecting their first child.
Their two-week tour will also take them to countries like New Zealand and Tonga, too.
Australia and New Zealand has been the site of the first royal tours of two royal babies.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just announced that they're expecting their first child together, hours after landing in Sydney for the start of their first official tour together. After Australia, they will head to New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji.
Their choice to announce their baby news in Australia may have just been a coincidence, but it has special significance for Prince Harry's family. As royal commentator Victoria Arbiter explained on her Twitter account, Australia is a meaningful place for the royal family, because both Prince William and Prince George had their first royal tours there.
There seems to be something about Australia and royal babies! Prince William’s first tour as a baby, Prince George’s first tour as a baby and now it seems it’s baby Sussex’s first stop too! 😉
- Victoria Arbiter (@victoriaarbiter) October 15, 2018
In March 1983, nine-month-old Prince William went to Australia and New Zealand with his parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The trip was full of firsts, as it marked William's first tour, but as Hello! reports, he was also the first royal baby to go on a royal tour ever.
The trip was also Diana and Charles' first overseas tour as a married couple, and it was the first time the first and second in line to the British throne traveled on the same airplane.
According to People, during a visit to the School of the Air, a radio program that broadcasts educational information for children in remote areas of Australia, Diana was asked if William had a favorite toy, and she replied, "He loves his koala bear."
Thirty-one years later, Prince William and Kate Middleton took eight-month-old Prince George on this first official tour to the same two countries in April 2014. The family of three started off in New Zealand before jetting off to Australia, and they went to events including a play group for George and a visit to Taronga Zoo, where George was famously given a stuffed toy that he promptly flung to the ground.
Meghan and Harry's first tour as expectant parents is a place with deep meaning for the royal family, and given the royals' penchant for historical symbols, perhaps this was the plan all along.
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