Harry sweetly twirls young fan around on quasi-royal Australia tour

Prince Harry was captured sweetly twirling a young royal fan around as he and Meghan concluded their quasi-royal tour Down Under in Sydney today.

Footage showed the Duke of Sussex dancing with the adorable four-year-old after meeting with members from Invictus Australia.

Among them was Joel Vanderzwan, who competed at the games in The Hague in 2022, as well as his wife Alexandra and their three children.

When the serviceman’s daughter Charlotte asked Meghan if she wanted to see her dance, the Duchess happily ‘obliged and roped Harry in’, Mr Vanderzwan said.

A clip posted on X by Invictus Australia’s showed the Duke dancing with the youngster after Meghan told Charlotte he is ‘very good at twirling’.

‘Charlotte asked Meghan if she wanted to see her dance, and Meghan obliged, and as all good wives do, roped Harry in to be the prince that he is,’ Mr Vanderzwan added.

He later presented Harry and Meghan with customised flip-flops, known as thongs Down Under. The Duke’s pair was emblazoned with the words ‘G’day Hazza’ while Meghan’s read ‘G’day Megs’.

After receiving the gift, Harry joked that he normally receives ‘budgie smugglers’ from Invictus Australia.

The couple also met Mr Vanderzwan and Alexandra’s nine-month-old twin sons – who, in a remarkable coincidence, are named Harrison and William.

Harry and Meghan touched down in Sydney last night for the final leg of their tour. 

Meanwhile guests were pictured arriving for the Duchess’s headlining appearance at a £1,700-a-head women-only retreat at the nearby InterContinental Hotel in Coogee.  

Before Meghan was set to be interviewed on stage as part of the retreat with women’s networking group Her Best Life, organised by Jackie ‘O’ Henderson and her manager Gemma O’Neill, she joined Prince Harry for a series of events in Sydney. 

They sailed around the harbour after a police escort and posed for selfies with fans outside the Sydney Opera House at an Invictus Australia event.

On a packed Bondi beach, Harry hugged a man wearing only beachball-patterned budgie smugglers before the couple met survivors of the terrorist attack which killed 15 people on December 14.

Some of the group they spoke to were among the first responders to the tragedy.

The Sussexes looked deeply moved and chatted to Jessica Chapnik Kahn, who survived while shielding her five-year-old daughter after attending a Hanukkah party.

The mother, who Meghan embraced, said it was an ‘honour’ to meet the couple during their visit to the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club.

Harry and Meghan also examined artefacts that will make up the new exhibition at the Sydney Jewish Museum, including well-wishing messages and illustrations of members of the public who were hailed as heroes for helping people during the attack. 

On Bondi, the couple delighted the public as they headed onto the sand, removing their shoes before walking towards the sea on a gloriously sunny morning, followed by an ever-increasing scrum of media and beachgoers who tried to snap selfies with the couple.

The Duke and Duchess examined inflatable rescue boats used by lifeguards on the beach, while photographers got their shoes wet in the waves as they chased the perfect shot of the famous pair.

A heavy New South Wales Police and private security presence guarded the doors as the Sussexes spent 30 minutes inside meeting 40 surf lifesavers.

Later in the day, Meghan will be interviewed on stage at a ‘girls’ weekend’ retreat, costing £1,400 per ticket.

VIP entry for the event at the five-star InterContinental Coogee Beach hotel costs £1,670 and includes a group table photo with the Duchess.

Her appearance was announced last month by Gemma O’Neill, host of the Her Best Life podcast, which is organising the 300-person event.

The visit will conclude with a rugby fixture in Sydney between New South Wales Waratahs and Moana Pasifika at the Allianz Stadium tonight.

Harry previously visited the Sydney Opera House during his 2015 army secondment as well as on his 2018 royal tour with Meghan.

Hundreds gathered at the famous landmark in 2015 to greet the Duke during a farewell walkabout, after he came to the end of a month-long attachment with the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

While in Australia in 2015, Harry spent time training on helicopter simulators at barracks in Sydney and trained with the Special Air Service in Perth. In Darwin he worked with members of Norforce, the mostly Indigenous unit which patrols northern Australia.

The Invictus Games involve 22 nations and around 500 competitors, with inspiration for the games coming from Harry’s 2013 visit to the Warrior Games, which brings together hundreds of injured American military personnel to compete in adaptive sports as part of their recovery.

Australia hosted the Invictus Games in Sydney in 2018 and the next event will be held at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre in July 2027.