Meghan Markle had an “eye-opening” experience during her first royal tour with Prince Harry to Australia, according to a royal expert.

As King Charles and Queen Camilla begin their tour of Australia, details of the Sussexes’ 2018 tour have resurfaced.

Royal commentator Ingrid Seward claims Meghan initially enjoyed “playing the part of the princess” but soon became disenchanted when she realized she wouldn’t be the “star of the show” and would simply be a “cog in the wheel.”

Meghan Markle ‘will never be forgiven’ but Harry’s glimpses of ‘old self’ are shining, claims expert

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s 8 demands for school visit including ‘new carpet’ and cushions

Seward told The Sun: “It was a monumental trip when Harry and Meghan went in 2018, and Meghan announced her pregnancy when she was there. I think the Australians were very flattered by that and she played her part brilliantly. They were young and fresh.”

“But I think Meghan wasn’t seeing it quite like that. I think she enjoyed the adulation. She enjoyed playing the part of the princess as she saw it. But I also think it was a bit of a shock. She was being told what to do. She was being told where to go, and she was being told how to do it. And she wasn’t taking a starring role,” reports the Express.

“She was married to the number two man, not the number one man, which would have been [Prince] William. That was definitely when the rot began to sort of fester a little bit,” Seward went on.

Charles is set to make a state visit to Samoa before attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting later this week.