Something fun is happening this year: in lieu of “the Sussexes are not invited to Christmas at Sandringham” stories, we’re getting tons of stories about Prince William and Kate going to war with King Charles and Queen Camilla. Ho ho ho, merry Christmas! Last year, William and Kate skipped the big family Christmas lunch at the main house at Sandringham. Will and Kate have always preferred to spend as little time with the other left-behinds as possible, and they also invite the Middletons to stay at Anmer. So after the church walk on Christmas morning, Will and Kate usually return to Anmer and spend the rest of the day with the Middletons. Well, they plan to do the same this year, even though King Charles is reportedly doing poorly.
Prince William is skipping Christmas lunch with his father after long-simmering tensions between the monarch and his heir were made worse by the palace’s shambolic handling of the Prince Andrew affair.
William and Charles’ offices did not respond to a request for comment, but a source told the Royalist: “William and the family will do their duty and go to church with big smiles pasted on, but they are not expected for Christmas lunch at the big house. It has been an extremely difficult year for William and Catherine.”
William and his family are expected to retreat to their private home, Anmer Hall, after the 11 a.m. church service on Christmas Day. This will mark the third year in a row they have skipped lunch with William’s dad.
A friend of the King’s angrily denied the decision represented a rift, saying, “Of course William is invited, and of course he is free to do his own thing without anyone being remotely upset.”
However, The Royalist understands that the deep personal rift between father and son (William spoke openly to Eugene Levy about the trauma of his parents’ separation) has been exacerbated by Charles’ determination to continue to include Andrew’s children, Beatrice and Eugenie, in formal royal events. In recent weeks, Charles gave Beatrice a coveted royal patronage of a key royal charity, the Outward Bound Trust. The King’s judgment was called into question by the move, which came just days after she was spotted hosting a tea party at a five-star hotel in Saudi Arabia and attended an investment conference in Riyadh, the stomping ground of many of Andrew’s old contacts.
I am told the Princesses have been invited to Sandringham for Christmas as part of Charles’ ongoing efforts to make it clear they have not been cut off from royal society like their father. They may, of course, opt not to come in solidarity with their parents, both of whom have not been invited.
William’s concerns go deeper than a Christmas photo-call, however. Both women continue to rent private properties in London as pieds-a-terre from the king on terms unknown: Beatrice in St James’ Court and Eugenie in Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace. For many years, the media were told their father paid commercial rent on his property, Royal Lodge, but it ultimately turned out he was paying rent of “one peppercorn per annum if demanded.”
William’s operation is run by a cadre of young, digital-savvy individuals who understand the threat that the King’s ongoing endorsement of Beatrice and Eugenie represents to the monarchy. A friend of William’s said, “There is not a specific fear about a specific detail. There is anxiety about the broader impact on the monarchy’s reputation of anyone with the surname York being part of it.”
Another family friend of the royals described the relationship between William and the king to me as tense, difficult, formal, and fraught, with William harboring a “deep-seated resentment” toward his father, rooted in childhood trauma. I reported that the two men only rarely speak informally, with most of their communication mediated by their private secretaries.
At the heart of [Charles & William’s] conflict lies a difference in philosophy about what the monarchy should project. William wants to strip back the pomp, uniforms, and ermine, and believes prioritizing family life over relentless public duty is the right course. Charles, by contrast, believes that constant visibility—Queen Elizabeth famously said she had to “be seen to be believed”—is the monarchy’s primary job, and that his son risks undermining the institution’s reputation for dutiful, selfless service by placing family first.
There were suspicions in the summer that rivals were encouraging some of the stories about William and Kate’s long and extravagant summer holidays as a kind of proxy war, aimed at undermining the couple’s carefully cultivated narrative of middle-class normality.
Three years in a row without going to the big house for Christmas lunch… in my opinion, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal on its own. Will and Kate have young children, and the Sandringham lunch is adults-only. Of course W&K want to spend the holiday with their kids, opening presents and day-drinking and what have you. But in the larger scheme of things, it’s extremely notable that William, the whole-ass Prince of Wales and future king, has so little respect for religious holidays or family occasions. In recent years, Will and Kate have also skipped the pre-Christmas lunch for the extended family, usually held about a week before Christmas. Charles even started hosting that lunch in Windsor, just a short distance from where Will and Kate allegedly lived, and they still didn’t bother to go. I bet they skip it again this year too. They also skipped Easter Sunday with the family two years in a row. So… yeah. William doesn’t give a sh-t about any of this.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
