Duchess’s trip to Fiji market is cut short due to crowd worries
Meghan makes education for women subject of first solo speech of tour while Duke visits canopy project
THE Duchess of Sussex was ushered from a Fijian market place yesterday after a planned visit to meet female stallholders was cut short amid “crowd maintenance issues”.
The Duchess, who is expecting her first child next spring, spent around eight minutes – half the allotted time for the engagement – in the humid market in Suva before being escorted to a waiting car by her protection officers.
Kensington Palace said the decision to leave was due to concerns over the crowds, with sources insisting the Duchess had not been taken unwell.
As she visited the market without the Duke, who was unveiling the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project in Colo-i-suva, hundreds of locals cheered and took photographs from behind low barriers, as the Duchess, her aides and the press walked the clear pathway between them.
Female entrepreneurs who had prepared for weeks for the visit shared their disappointment, with one describing the Duchess as looking “a bit afraid” at her first overseas market visit.
Kensington Palace was last night facing questions over who made the decision to leave and why, with the Duchess seen to consult with her aides shortly before her new head of protection guided her into a car to depart.
One source said: “It was hot, humid and uncomfortably busy, and there were far larger crowds than expected. On advice, she was taken out due to crowd management issues.”
Earlier, wearing a dress by Figue and carrying a woven bag made by women at Suva market, she had made her first speech of the Pacific tour to champion the importance of higher education for women.
The Duchess said she knew the “personal feeling of pride and excitement” that university brought and called the journey to get there “incredible, impactful and pivotal”. Addressing stu- dents at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, she said: “Everyone should be afforded the opportunity to receive the education they want, but more importantly the education they have the right to receive. And for women and girls in developing countries, this is vital.”
Today, the Duke and Duchess travel to Tonga for the third leg of their fourcountry tour.