The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hugged patients at a children’s hospital as hundreds of people turned out to greet them at the beginning of their visit to Australia.
Harry and Meghan spoke to children and posed for photographs with patients, as they were cheered by large crowds gathered along the walkways of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Four-year-old patient Lily presented them with a hand-drawn sign that said: “Welcome Harry and Meghan”. She also gave a flower to the duchess.
Meghan hugged Lily after being presented with the gifts and told her: “Oh my gosh, this is so sweet. I love it.”
After being shown Lily’s sign, Harry said: “Nice to meet you, Lily.
“That’s beautiful. How long did it take?”
Harry and Meghan took part in a garden therapy session with patients at the hospital, smelling plants and flowers.
Asked if he would like to take some gumtree home, Harry, wearing a navy jacket, white shirt and metal bracelets, joked: “I would, but I think I’d probably get arrested at some point.”
Meghan, wearing a Karen Gee navy sleeveless dress, asked the patients: “Do you find that different stories and memories come out that you weren’t expecting?”
Following the hospital visit, the duchess visited a women’s refuge in the city.
Meghan donned an apron and served frittata to people at the centre, run by McAuley Community Services for Women, which supports women and children experiencing family violence, homelessness and related challenges.
After serving several people, the duchess asked “is anyone else hungry?”, while looking and smiling at the press and other people gathered in the centre.
Meghan sat at a table and joined people eating food at the centre, telling them: “We landed here this morning so my jet lag hasn’t quite hit yet.”
The couple were greeted by a mass of local media as they entered the hospital with their visit the subject of intense press interest in Australia.
While greeting crowds at the hospital, Harry hugged Christina Parkes, who works as an academic at the University of Melbourne.
Ms Parkes, whose 13-year-old daughter Adelaide is a patient at the hospital, said it “means an enormous amount” to have the couple visit Australia.
Speaking before the couple arrived, Ms Parkes told the Press Association: “I’m absolutely thrilled to see the couple. Harry’s grandmother actually opened the hospital originally, and her portrait and his grandfather’s portrait are in the hallway.”
Asked what she planned to say to the couple, Ms Parkes said: “Welcome to Australia, we hope they enjoy their time here.
“Thank you for taking the time to visit the hospital and see the work that the doctors and nurses are doing.
“I cannot overstate how important the work is that they do here at the children’s hospital because my daughter wouldn’t be here without them.”
Harry and Meghan visited the hospital’s wards and met oncology patient Hamish, with the duke discussing Aussie rules football with him.
The duke asked the 17-year-old: “Who’s your team, are they doing well in the league?”
The couple also met 17-year-old patient Maya, who said the hospital does “amazing” work.
Speaking before meeting the couple, Maya told the Press Association: “I’m very excited. My grandma’s a big fan so we’re doing this for her just so we can say we saw them – she’ll be thrilled.
“It means a lot. Just to know that they’re worried about us, they love us, just to know that they love Australia and Melbourne, it’s really nice.
“In Melbourne, we love Prince Harry. We all love him so much, just the royal family in general.”
Harry’s parents, the King and Diana, Princess of Wales, visited the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1985, meeting patients while on a visit to the state of Victoria.
The hospital’s new site was opened in October 2011 by Queen Elizabeth II, who met with patients during her visit on her royal tour of Australia with Prince Philip.
The late Queen opened the earlier iteration of the hospital in February 1963 – with the hospital pushing forward its opening by six months to ensure it would align with the royal tour.
The hospital, located in the Melbourne suburb of Parkville, is the designated state-wide major trauma centre for paediatrics in Victoria and a nationally funded centre for cardiac and liver transplantation.
Founded in 1870 as the Melbourne Free Hospital for Sick Children, the hospital has grown from its beginnings in a small house with six rooms to having over 6,000 staff.
The women’s refuge centre visited by Meghan provides round-the-clock crisis accommodation, refuge services and longer-term housing, alongside programmes focused on recovery, wellbeing and independence.
McAuley Houses, then known as Regina Coeli, was founded in 1986 by the Sisters of Mercy, a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church that was created in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley.
The organisation was merged with McAuley Care, previously known as Mercy Care, to form McAuley in 2008.
