There are two types of stories about Meghan, Sussex these days. The first kind reports what she’s actually doing. The second kind pretends that whatever she’s doing is somehow scandalous. The Duchess of Sussex’s upcoming appearance at a women’s retreat in Sydney has managed to trigger the second category.
Next April, Meghan will appear at the Her Best Life Retreat, a three-day women-focused event set against the ocean views of Coogee Beach in Australia. The retreat promises yoga, wellness sessions, sound healing, psychology talks and plenty of time for women to relax and connect.
The centerpiece of the weekend is a gala dinner featuring an in-person conversation with Meghan. Apparently, this is now controversial.
A luxury weekend built around women’s empowerment
The retreat takes place from April 17 to April 19 at the InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach. Organizers describe it as “a girls’ weekend like no other,” designed to give women space to reconnect, recharge and have meaningful conversations.
Guests will participate in wellness activities throughout the weekend, including yoga sessions, meditation and manifestation workshops, and a psychology session led by Dr. Justine Corry. There will also be relaxed time by the pool, group dinners, and, because balance is important, a disco night.
The highlight is the gala dinner, where Meghan will take part in a fireside-style conversation with attendees.
Tickets start at about A$2,699 for the weekend, which includes accommodation, meals, drinks and access to all activities. VIP packages cost around A$3,200 and include front-row seating for Meghan’s conversation, a group photo with the duchess and upgraded ocean-view rooms.
In other words, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a luxury women’s retreat with a high-profile guest speaker.
The British media tries to manufacture outrage
Predictably, some coverage immediately fixated on the ticket price rather than the event itself. The BBC breathlessly reported that Meghan will appear at what it described as a “£1,400 girls’ weekend.”
That framing tells you everything about how the story is being handled. The event is not funded by taxpayers. It’s not organized by the British government. It isn’t even happening in Britain. This is a private women-focused retreat taking place on the other side of the world.
Yet somehow the British media still treats Meghan attending a speaking event as if it were a constitutional crisis. The irony is difficult to miss.
While outlets obsess over Meghan participating in a women-led retreat, coverage of the actual British monarchy often manages to glide past much more consequential questions. The same week, journalists were calculating the price of a wellness weekend, protesters outside royal events were asking King Charles III and Prince William what they knew about the long-running scandal surrounding Prince Andrew.
Those questions rarely dominate the headlines. A wellness retreat apparently does.
Meghan continues building her own lane
The reality is simpler than the outrage cycle suggests. Meghan has spent the past few years building projects outside the traditional royal system. Not to mention, she was already a self-made woman before meeting her future husband and father of her children, Prince Harry. Through Archewell, media work and entrepreneurial ventures, she has focused on issues like women’s empowerment and mental health.
The Sydney retreat fits neatly into that world. The event is organized by the Her Best Life podcast community and will host around 300 women. Its focus is personal growth, connection and wellness. Meghan’s participation is framed as a conversation rather than a lecture, something closer to a fireside chat than a formal speech.
In other words, it’s a pretty standard format for a modern leadership or wellness retreat. But when Meghan Sussex is involved, even the most routine event somehow becomes a cultural flashpoint.
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The bigger picture
Seven years ago, Meghan Sussex and Prince Harry arrived in Australia as newly married working royals. The 2018 tour drew huge crowds and enthusiastic coverage across the country.
Today, the context is completely different. Meghan now appears as an independent public figure rather than a member of the working royal rota. She speaks at events, builds media projects and supports initiatives tied to women’s leadership, mental health and community building.
The Sydney retreat reflects that shift. Instead of a formal royal tour, it is a private gathering organized by a podcast community and attended by a few hundred women interested in wellness, conversation and connection. Given that Meghan Sussex hosts her own podcasts, including Archetypes and Confessions of a Female Founder, her appearance at an event tied to the podcast world is hardly surprising.
What has not changed is the media response surrounding Meghan. A speaking appearance that would normally pass as a routine conference booking has been framed as a controversy largely because Meghan’s name appears on the program.
And that reaction reveals something about the current media ecosystem. Coverage often focuses less on what Meghan is doing and more on turning ordinary professional activities into cultural flashpoints. In reality, the retreat appears to be exactly what its organizers promised: a weekend of workshops, conversations and networking by the ocean. Meghan’s role is simply to take part in a discussion about her experiences as a mother, entrepreneur and advocate.
Judging by the reaction, however, the larger story may be something else entirely. Meghan Sussex continues building a life and career outside the traditional royal structure. And for some commentators, that seems to remain the most controversial part of all.
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Average cost of a Lux Retreat is : $3,000 to $7,000. Why are people freaking out? Tony Robbins just basic is over $3,000. VIP up to A$15,000.
My point exactly!
But we know why – it’s all about the racist/mysogynistic/toxic despicable British media/tabloids/pro-RF derangers, and this time the corrupt mouthpiece of the BBC, who are manufacturing “ragebait” against our Meghan Sussex who, as a biracial American, isn’t permitted to make an honest living!!!!
Unlike the lazy, freeloading, greedy, cruel and dysfunctional taxpayer funded British RF who enjoy their very extravagant and privileged lifestyles in return for cutting ribbons, and shaking the hands of a few Caucasians – btw Charles is on the internet openly avoiding the hands of black people in the front of barricade but taking the Caucasians’ hands next to them so his racism is real – on a maximum 2 hours work day!
Perhaps you are being a little unkind to these scribblers of hate. They go home at nights full of pride at their self-perceived skill at destroying a reputation; of causing humiliation; exposing another charlatan; diminishing yet another upstart possessing a talent they will never own. British people have lost their Empire but not their royal family. They are the glue holding a trembling nation’s pride together, yet they see it crumbling at the hands of fools wielding great wealth and power.
Had the royals kept Meghan, there would be a thriving monarchy driven by a courageos young prince and his alpha American wife of colour, uniting the Commonwealth whose coloured people embrace 90% of the population. Instead, William and Kate go to the Carribean and greet children through a wire fence allowing them to barely brush hands with their untouchable white masters whereas Meghan would have ordered the fence removed or insisted on mixing and hugging the children.
Charles and Kate were then exposed as the two family members who were concerned that Archie might, heaven forbid, have coloured skin to besmirch the House of Windsor.
The stench of a history of slavery persists.
Here we go again!!!
I always expect the typical reaction of “manufactured outrage” from the racist, mysogynistic, toxic delusional British media/tabloids and their deranged cohorts, to this event being headlined by our Meghan Sussex. They need the clicks, and the rage bait engagement, and ultimately, for monitisation.
But for the corrupt and racist BBC to jump on board with those headlines stating the attendance fee for what has been billed as an exclusive, and exciting weekend for women engagement is beyind the pail to me – as a BBC TV licence fee payer!
Besides, isnt this the typical rate for such an event – a plain old spar weekend without all the trimmings this one has going for it, would charge as much if not more in some cases!
And to those complaining – it’s not compulsory to attend so they don’t have to worry about the cost if they can’t afford it, or even get tickets to attend.
They need to take a seat very far away!!!
It’s no secret that the BBC are not only pro-RF, but routinely acts as their mouthpiece, which is not how an independent national TV organisation is expected to conduct itself.
It should do so with journalistic integrity, objectively, and truthfully, excluding attacking an American biracial woman who lives 5k miles on another continent who is going to be attending an event also in another country that is even farther away from the UK!!
I’d like to ask the BBC writer/editor of that article their reason or justification for splashing the cost of the event in their headlines, and also whether they fact checked the details and actual fee from the organisers, or whether they just plucked that from the Bristish tabloids, who seem to know everything going on in the Sussexes’ lives, including oftentimes, their head, despite not having any access to, or contact with them!
Mindbogglng!!
BTW, they have all their taxpayer funded British RF in the UK, some of whom are currently embroiled in pretty serious scandals – why aren’t the BBC focusing on them instead?
I wish the Sussexes will just be left alone to get on with living their blessed and best lives in sunny California – but that’s only my wishful thinking cos I know it’s not going to happen – as long as the vile and vapid British media/tabloids/derangers are all making millions of £s by grifting off their name!!
So my more “realistic wish” is for God to continue to guide, protect and bless them with more success, prosperity, love, happiness, joy, peacen and good health in every commercial and philanthropic endeavor they embark on!
This visit is going to be safe and very successful for them – just like all the others that they’ve done to date, as independent humans! xxx