Meghan and Harry Kick Off Their Trip to Colombia with a "Formal Audience"

I could have sworn that Meghan and Harry’s trip to Colombia was scheduled for November. I remember thinking that although their CBS interview aired while the royals were off on summer holiday, their trip to South America would take place after the royals were back in the swing of things. Maybe I read a badly written report. I think that the summit on online safety for children that Colombia is hosting will take place in November. In any event, I was mistaken, as the couple began their four-day visit today!

Eric Charbonneau for Archewell

Frankly, the fact that they obviously planned this visit to coincide with the real royals on break makes it all the more fun. Proof positive that Meghan is still laser-focused on her in-laws’ calendar.

One major problem the Sussexes have is, actually, press coverage. Their hatred for the press because of their inability to control every single headline (overall, the press was very positive to Harry and Meghan!) has led them to shun media coverage and try to control the narrative themselves. It looks like they have a personal photographer and a blogger along for the trip, who are updating the couple’s sussex.com website. The problem is, when you want wall to wall coverage, you need a proliferation of pictures and reports. The masses are not going to flock to sussex.com. Without picture agencies making dozens if not hundreds of images available, the Sussexes’ trips will get even less coverage than the already toned down response they’d receive anyway as former royals. The report on their trip has not even made the Daily Mail’s lead banner, probably because there just aren’t great pictures to share. We live in a visual world.

In any event, diving in… Harry and Meghan began their trip with a welcome tea with the Vice President of Colombia. According to Harry and Meghan’s website (which I honestly wonder if Meghan writes herself):

Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have commenced their visit to Colombia with a memorable and heartfelt welcome from Vice President Francia Márquez and her partner, Rafael Yerney Pinillos.

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In her official residence, Vice President Márquez hosted the couple for a formal audience. Over coffee, tea, and delicious pan de bono—a traditional Colombian cheese bread—the Vice President shared her vision and love for Colombia, passion for mental health and devotion to preventing online harms.

Colombia was colonized by the Spanish, so there is no British Commonwealth connection to dance awkwardly around, still, just like their last trip, this one is structured like a royal tour. And even though this is actually a visit by private people, boy, do they want you to understand that to their minds, this is official. Note that Meghan (or her intern) used royal-associated language in the write-up of the couple’s visit: “In her official residence, Vice President Márquez hosted the couple for a formal audience.” (emphasis added).

Traditionally, an audience is really only associated with royalty. Audience is obviously derived from audio/hearing. If you trace the use of the term audience, there is a one-sided nature to it, because it has its roots back in the Middle Ages with a monarch or a high-ranking official agreeing to listen to the petitions or grievances of subjects or foreign delegations. This is why the language around the term “audience” is also high-low. For example, “the Queen granted xyz an audience.” Obviously, as the world has modernized, that disparity between ranks and lessened and an audience is now often between high-ranking individuals, e.g., the monarch’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister. But the history of the word is why you really only hear it associated with royals, the Pope (who is a kind of a royal), and high-ranking officials and dignitaries of nations with monarchs. King Charles holds audiences because his ancestors conquered at the Battle of Hastings, subjugating the English people to his authority. The President of the United States is a person chosen from the people destined to return to the people—he does not hold audiences; he has meetings.

Meghan’s careful articulation of the fact the couple had a “formal audience” with the Vice President of Colombia (and “delicious pan de bono”) makes me feel like we are watching one of those Hallmark royal romances—sappy and filled with false royal protocol.

After the couple’s meeting with the Vice President, they were scheduled to head to an event on mental health for children at a local school. But, we will have to wait for the Sussexes to update us on what happens next!

Quick fashion notes for those who track it! Meghan is wearing a summer suit by Veronica Beard, a Loro Piana bag, and Manolo Blahnik heels. She is wearing Pippa Small earrings and Princess Diana’s Cartier watch, along with a Cartier Love bracelet and a diamond tennis bracelet by Lorraine Schwartz. Her pinky ring is unidentified.