Belle of the ball! Pregnant Meghan dazzles in stunning £10,000 Oscar de la Renta gown as she and Prince Harry arrive at a glittering Sydney awards ceremony
Harry and Meghan are at Australian Geographic Society Gala Awards at the Shanghai-La hotel in Sydney
Duchess wore stunning Oscar de la Renta designer gown and couple are due to present awards at event
Earlier their Qantas charter Boeing 737 pulled up from Sydney Airport runway seconds from touchdown
Pilot explained that another plane on the runway had been ‘slow to roll’ and the two aircraft were too close
The Duchess of Sussex was today given a toy wombat for the royal baby she is due to have with her husband Prince Harry next spring as they attended a glamorous awards ceremony in Sydney.
Meghan, who was wearing an exquisite Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress worth £10,000, clutched the toy as the couple left the ballroom after attending the Australian Geographic Society gala awards at the Shanghai-La hotel.
Ironically, Prince William was nicknamed ‘wombat’ by his mother Princess Diana as a child. Meghan was also given a toy ‘numbat’, a small long-trailed marsupial that is native to Western Australia.
Both Meghan and Harry presented awards at the ceremony, just hours after they faced a flight drama when their plane aborted its landing. Their Qantas charter flight from Tonga, a Boeing 737, pulled up from the runway at Sydney Airport seconds before touching down.
Its pilot, Nigel Rosser, explained over the tannoy system that another plane on the runway had been ‘slow to roll’ and the two aircraft were too close. He explained the decision was made to ‘abort the landing’.
Earlier, the pregnant Duchess of Sussex dazzled in a green and white cotton designer dress as she and her husband met with Tonga’s Prime Minister and his deputy in the latest stage of their marathon 16-day royal tour.
Today, the Queen was honoured at the Australian Geographic Society event with a special award for conservation for her initiative to highlight the plight of the world’s forests.
The award, for her ‘outstanding contribution’ to global conservation was accepted on her behalf by the Duke of Sussex, and recognises the impact of the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, an initiative launched in 2015.
The Duke of Sussex gave an impassioned speech after picking up the award, in which he warned there ‘cannot be any more excuses’ when it comes to protecting the planet.
Harry warned: ‘We cannot continue to pollute the oceans with plastics and other wastes. We cannot continue to breathe polluted air while cutting down our forests or without reducing emissions.
‘We cannot stand by and let our wildlife disappear from the earth and our fish from the seas. I think we can agree tonight that there cannot be any more excuses.
‘Thanks to the tireless efforts of everyone in this room and the environmentalists and conservationists of the past, we are ready to translate our awareness into action. It is going to take every single one of us to stop the clock on the destruction of our planet, and time is not on our side.
Source: DAILYMAIL MAILONLINE
