Harry and Meghan’s pseudo-royal tour of Europe was partially bankrolled by the German taxpayer after it was revealed that Berlin laid on a Luftwaffe jet to take them to and from Dusseldorf yesterday.
The couple are back at Frogmore Cottage, their grace-and-favour UK home, where they are expected to spend the day together before their next engagement in London tomorrow.
The Sussexes profess to hate the stifling formality and archaic traditions of royal life. But everything about Harry and Meghan’s visit to Germany yesterday to promote Invictus Games 2023 screamed of a royal tour-lite.
And MailOnline can reveal this extended to the way they travelled to Dusseldorf, because a $50million German Air Force jet with ‘Luftwaffe’ on the tail was sent to London to collect them.
The German military – known as the Bundeswehr – and the city of Dusseldorf are jointly hosting next year’s Invictus Games. As part of the agreement, the Bundeswehr offered the use of their private jet to Harry and Meghan.
The German Air Force plane used by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a Bombardier Global 5000 usually reserved for senior members of the German government or armed forces. But yesterday it was lent to the Sussexes who then didn’t need to fly commercial.
It landed in the UK yesterday morning and took the couple from RAF Northolt at 11.34am, landing at Dusseldorf Airport at 1.23pm – 15 minutes behind schedule. After being met on the Tarmac they were then swept into the city in a black Porsche Cayenne.
After the Invictus engagements, the plane left Dusseldorf at 8.51pm, landing back at Northolt under an hour later. They were then driven the 20 miles to Windsor. The plane left Northolt at 9.24pm, returning to Cologne at 11.16pm local time, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.
A source said: ‘The Bundeswehr have a fleet of transport jets and this was most suitable for the short trip from England. It has the smallest capacity for passengers.
‘There isn’t a military base in Dusseldorf so the plane flew from Cologne and picked up the guests at RAF Northolt. It flew the party back to the same place and returned to Cologne.
‘The Bundeswehr are proud to be associated with the games to help with wounded war veterans and the offer was made when we were awarded the games. The same offer will apply next year when the games start.’
The German armed forces sent a $50million German Air Force jet with ‘Luftwaffe’ on the tail to London to collect the Sussexes and bring them to and from Dusseldorf
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on the red carpet during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 – One Year To Go launch event
| Departing airport | Departing time | Arriving airport | Arriving time | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cologne Bonn | 10:13 CEST | RAF Northolt | 10:10 BST | 57m |
| 2 | RAF Northolt | 11:34 BST | Dusseldorf | 13:23 CEST | 49m |
| 3 | Dusseldorf | 20:51 CEST | RAF Northolt | 20:42 BST | 51m |
| 4 | RAF Northolt | 21:24 BST | Cologne Bonn | 23:16 CEST | 52m |
Meghan takes selfies with well-wishers outside the town hall during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 – One Year To Go event
Harry also joined in the fun – shaking hands with the crowds in the centre of Dusseldorf
As the trio was compared to a royal engagement that Harry and Meghan would have done in the past, perhaps, remarked one household insider archly, that’s because the institution has spent decades perfecting what works best – and they know it.
‘Or could it be that they don’t quite hate what we do as much they profess,’ the source added, eyebrow raised skywards.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s latest round of public engagements involved red carpets, selfies and walkabouts as the couple attend events that are close to their heart this week.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have both delivered speeches during the last two days, with Meghan, 41, opening the One Young World summit in Manchester yesterday, and Harry, 37, speaking at the Invictus Games one year to go event in Germany today.
As the couple paid a flying visit to Dusseldorf today, they were invited to sign an official book and enjoy a boat cruise along the Rhine, with blockades put in place along the city’s roads.
The event had many of the hallmarks of a royal visit despite the couple being classed as private citizens rather than royals by German police — including meeting the crowds outside, some of whom were waving the British flag.
Critics have said that their list of engagements this week ‘could have been plucked from their calendar’ before they left the Firm.
With two events completed, their schedule still includes the WellChild Awards on Thursday, a charity for which Harry is a patron.
Today the Duke of Sussex appeared on stage at the Merkur-Spiel arena as part of an event to mark preparations for the 2023 Invictus Games.
The Paralympic-style event for servicemen and women founded by the prince will be held in the city next year, and the royal told a crowd of journalists he was ‘beyond impressed’ by what he had seen so far, after being met by hundreds of adoring fans.
As he and wife Meghan left the event, they posed for a group photo with those who had taken part in the press conference.
Earlier in the day the Duke charmed Dusseldorf by speaking German and praising their beer before Meghan posed for selfies and chatted with crowds in a royal walkabout on the latest leg of their pseudo-royal tour of the UK and Europe.
The couple, who are staying at Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, were all smiles as they arrived in the city’s main square where hundreds of royal fans stood for over two hours in the stifling heat to see them promote the games exactly a year before it is due to start next September.
The Telegraph‘s royal editor Hannah Furness has argued that their trip has a ‘distinctly royal feel’.
‘All broadly follow the pattern set by the Queen who chooses good causes and good people to honour with a royal visit,’ she said.
Their three short visits to the One Young World summit, Invictus Games event and WellChild Awards encompass this pattern.
Earlier today Meghan and Harry met fans with the Duchess of Sussex posing for selfie-after-selfie with well-wishers. She spoke to Maureen and Karl Heinz Kenpen who had stood at the front for over two hours Maureen 83, told Meghan she was English and had moved to Germany to marry.
Meghan told the couple: ‘That is a beautiful love story.’
The Duchess was also presented with a posy by someone in the crowd, a tradition seen at royal visits.
The couple looked overwhelmed by the warmth of the reception and spent close to 15 minutes thanking the fans for coming to see them.
The adoring crowd lapped up every word the couple spoke as they worked their way along the line.
Meghan was flanked by her personal bodyguard Christopher Sanchez who at one point looked concerned as the crowd surged forward and threatened to spill over the metal barricades.
The Duchess looked overwhelmed by the reception she was getting and repeatedly thanked people for waiting to see them.
Meghan was also handed flowers in a meet-and-greet that looked just like a royal tour event
The Duchess speaks to a young girl and also cooed over a baby in Dusseldorf today
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex takes selfies with well-wishers outside the town hall during the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 – One Year To Go events
Meghan shakes hands as she and Harry and Prince Harry visit the city as ambassador for the Invictus games, a week-long games for active servicemen and veterans who are ill, injured or wounded
Meghan spent several minutes speaking to people, many of them young women, who had waited for hours to see her
As part of their visit to the German city, police closed junctions and set up miles of roadblocks from Dusseldorf airport to the city centre so that the Sussexes and their entourage, including a personal doctor, could avoid traffic jams on the three mile journey.
As the visit was not a ‘royal visit’, there were no police motorcycle outriders and accompanying police cars would not turn on their flashing blue lights. But a police source said a vehicle carrying a doctor and medical equipment will have been part of the convoy for the three-mile drive into the city.
German police said they were only involved primarily on crowd control in the market square where Harry and Meghan started their visit at around 12.30pm.
More than 500 people stood behind metal barriers outside the entrance to the town hall. Some had taken their place at the front three hours before the planned arrival of the couple.
City officials also rolled out the red carpet — and even hoovered it — but insisted that the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was private and they were protected by their own security team with the couple footing the bill.
Last minute preparations also included red and white flowers – the official colours of the city – being placed around the entrance to the town hall.
They were met in the red carpet by Düsseldorf mayor Stephan Keller and a senior member of the German military.
The trip has been criticised as resembling a ‘royal tour’.
One insider said this pattern is ‘ironic given they profess to hate everything about the institution and royal life’, the Scottish Express reported.
The couple travelled in a Porsche 4×4 while aides from Archwell were in an Audi. The team of bodyguards travelled in two black people carriers.
The pair were meeting officials and potential competitors in the city on Tuesday. They were taken by boat along the Rhine River from the reception to the Merkur Spiel-Arena for a press conference where Harry delivered a speech.
At the town hall, the couple signed what is known as the ‘Golden Book’.
The oversized leather-bound volume is signed by all visiting dignitaries to Dusseldorf, the capital of the Rhine-Westphalia region.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, at the Invictus Games one year to go event in Dusseldorf
Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games event in Dusseldorf, Germany, this afternoon
The couple waved to the crowd, who were calling their names after hours waiting for them
Harry and Meghan got the red carpet treatment despite being classed as private citizens rather than royals by German police
The Sussexes are in Europe to officially launch the 2023 Invictus Games but are staying in the UK
Alfred Marstaller, Brigadier general, Lord Mayor of the State Capital, Dr. Stephan Keller, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Parliamentary secretary with the Ministry of Defence, Siemtje Muller and Markus Laubenthal, General lieutenant, pose at the town hall
City officials remove plastic film from the red carpet ahead of the Sussexes’ arrival
A worker vacuums the steps before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive
The page assigned to the couple was already been prepared with their names in red Roman cursive writing.
Harry was billed as’ Prinz Harry Herzog von Sussex’ while his wife is ‘Meghan, Herzogin von Sussex’ – translated as Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Although there is a balcony in the book signing room overlooking the market square, the couple did not step out to wave to crowds gathered below.
‘That would not be appropriate,’ said a city official.
A convoy of cars then took the couple to a jetty about two miles away where they boarded the MS Rhein Galaxie for the hour-long cruise along the Rhine.
Their afternoon jaunt on the £13million boat took them to Duisburg and ended at the Merkur-Spiel sports stadium where the sports event for disabled military veterans was held.
The Golden Book in the Town Hall in Dusseldorf was ready to be signed by Harry and Meghan at the reception to launch the Invictus Games 2023
The Von Sussexes: The Golden Book at Dusseldorf town hall was ready to be signed by Harry and Meghan on Tuesday
The couple smiled and waved as they boarded the boat for a river cruise
A source with the city of Dusseldorf told Mail Online: ‘Of course this is a private visit, but we do not want anything to go wrong or there to be any incident. We are showcasing the city.
‘They will have their own security teams, but the police area being consulted and will be involved. We are hosts for the Invictus Games and we want everything to run very smoothly.
‘There have been lots of consultations and plans have changed, but we are confident it will be a trouble-free visit.’
Yesterday the couple were in Manchester where Meghan opened the One Young World summit.
She has been a counsellor with the organisation, which champions change made by young people across the globe, since 2014.
However last night she was accused of making a speech that just focused on ‘me, me, me’ as she made at least 54 references to herself during a seven-minute talk to young people billed as being about gender equality.
It was the Duchess’ first address in Britain since Megxit as she opened the event at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester watched by her smiling husband Harry.
Meghan Markle (pictured on Monday) gave a seven-minute speech focused on ‘me, me, me’, royal experts said, during her first address in Britain since Megxit more than two years ago, as she gushed about Prince Harry and the ‘life-changing’ impact of becoming a mother to Archie
Meghan told the event it was ‘very nice to be back in the UK’ before touting her own work with the organisation. Meghan seemingly tried to relate with the youth attendees, telling them: ‘In many ways I was probably like a lot like you, I was young, ambitious.’ The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pictured together at Monday’s event
Meghan and Harry had been given a warm welcome at the event. But minutes earlier, as the couple climbed out of their car, many in a 100- strong crowd booed from behind a barrier just yards away, with onlookers saying it was so loud ‘there was no doubt they would have heard’.
One protester was carrying a sign that read: ‘FO Harry and Me-Gain Fake Royals.’
Despite having been selected to discuss gender equality, Meghan only made one brief anecdote about a woman other than herself. The Duchess of Sussex said that the first year she joined One Young World in Dublin, she worked with a young woman from Eritrea.
‘She had escaped her home country, fleeing with bullets fired above her head. I still remember it so well,’ she said. ‘I remember my shock, and I also remember her courage, my recognition of how much continues to go on each day with so many turning a blind eye. And yet despite all odds, she like so many still persevered.’
Royal experts criticised Meghan after the speech for delivering an address that ‘lacked content’ and was riddled with confusing and insincere commentary.
Meghan also told the audience, made up of young delegates from more than 190 countries, that they are ‘the future, but also the present, driving the positive and necessary change needed across the globe.’ She and Prince Harry are pictured at Manchester Train Station as they make their return to London on Monday night
One protester was carrying a sign that read: ‘FO Harry and Me-Gain Fake Royals’
‘I can’t visualise or comprehend how the 2,000 young people understood a word of what she was talking about,’ Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, told The Sun.
‘It made no sense. It was all about her and related everything to herself.
‘I don’t think she knew what she was talking about. It was just ‘me, me, me’ and praising herself.
On Thursday, the couple will attend the WellChild Awards, which celebrate the bravery of young people from across the UK who have coped with a serious illness or disability.
Prince Harry is a patron of the charity since 2007, with Meghan joining him at the 2018 and 2019 awards.
The event includes a reception, followed by a dinner and an awards ceremony.
