KATE Middleton and Prince William will skip this year’s Christmas lunch with King Charles, but a controversial royal is set to attend.
After a tough year for the Prince and Princess of Wales, it appears that the Waleses are looking forward to Christmas and catching up with the Royal Family.
Despite this, although Princess Kate, 42, and Prince William, 42, will attend the main Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate, they have often not attended lunch at the ‘Big House’, as the royals call it.
According to royal expert Emily Andrews, the couple are wanting a more informal Christmas dinner this year.
Writing in Woman, Emily shared: “They prefer the informality of a relaxed lunch at nearby Anmer Hall.
“And I understand will do so again this year, with the addition of the Middleton family.”
Once Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, have broken up from school in mid-December, it’s thought that the family will decamp to Norfolk.
Anmer Hall is their sanctuary, and after Kate’s cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy and continued road to recovery, this festive period is likely to be more special than most.
Traditionally, Christmas for the Royal Family is held at Sandringham House.
On Christmas Eve, there is a black-tie evening where presents are exchanged.
Then on Christmas Day, there are one or two visits to church in the morning, followed by lunch and the monarch’s speech.
King Charles, 76, has kept to these traditions largely – although Queen Camilla, 77, has also started inviting her family to stay too.
This year has not only been a tricky time for the Waleses, but also for Kate’s parents, Carole, 69, and Michael Middleton, 75.
The Middletons reportedly stepped up to support their daughter through her cancer treatment at her home in Windsor.
Charles is still receiving treatment for cancer and so Christmas at the ‘Big House’ may be more muted
Emily Andrews
Emily claimed: “So a festive, joyous Middleton Christmas with all the trimmings will be just the ticket.
“It’s also likely to include Kate’s sister Pippa, her husband James Matthews and children Arthur, six, Grace, three and Rose, two, along with her brother James Middleton, his wife Alizée and son Inigo, one.”
SARAH Hewson, royal editor at Talk TV, said the Royal Family typically gather on Christmas Eve to kickstart the celebrations.
She added: “The little royals – George, Charlotte and Louis and Camilla’s grandchildren – will help finish decorating the tree.
“Then, the royal family and all their guests will place their gifts on a trestle table in the red drawing room and they will open them at tea time, a German tradition introduced by Prince Albert.
“And contrary to what we might expect when you think about a royal Christmas, there are no diamonds under the tree.
“They actually give joke gifts – Kate once, when he was single, gave Harry a Grow Your Own girlfriend kit, and apparently Meghan’s present to the Queen on her first Christmas at Sandringham with a singing hamster.
But whilst the Waleses are not expected to have lunch at the ‘Big House’, it’s been reported that disgraced Prince Andrew, 64 and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, 65, are expected to be in attendance.
Despite his current Royal Lodge row with King Charles, the ‘defiant’ Duke of York is believed to have received an invite for the Sandringham festivities.
PRINCE Andrew’s reputation is damaged beyond repair and he will never be able to engineer a return to public life, according to one of Britain’s top PR gurus.
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who runs East of Eden PR agency, called the shamed royal “deluded” for thinking he could ever return to royal duties and urged him to give up and ‘enjoy his life’ in exile.
It follows the release of Scoop – a Netflix movie based on the 2019 interview he gave to Newsnight.
Nick said: “There is no way back for him.
“I think you know this perpetual idea that he could still be back. Nobody cares. He hasn’t got fans.
“There’s nobody out there who’s going ‘We want to see Prince Andrew’, not one single person. I think he has to realise that. But I think it’s going to take a long, long time for him to actually understand. It’s very deluded.
“In my opinion, the best thing that he could do is just enjoy his life. He’s got gorgeous daughters. He has a great relationship with Fergie, he has a lovely house.
“Just live a quiet life.”
Reflecting on the interview five years ago – the fallout of which saw Andrew step back from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” – Nick compared the fallout to Frost vs Nixon and said he would have urged him not to do it.
He said: “If I had been advising him, I would say, go quiet, be quiet, just go to ground. You know you’re a prince. Enjoy the life that you lead, but do not open this can of worms, because that’s what it is.
“There was no admission that a relationship with somebody like Epstein was terribly toxic. There was no idea that there were loads of victims of trafficking whose lives were completely ruined by Epstein. He didn’t seem to think that the association he had with that man was anything but positive.
“I think his worst gaffe was obviously being in that interview and agreeing to it in the first place, for not realising that he’s actually going to be interviewed by a very, very good journalist who is going to ask him questions which he might not like.
“But I think what this has done is really shown how archaic Prince Andrew is in his opinions and thoughts.
“Read the room. He’s never read a room at all.”
But this December is set to be slightly different for the Royal Family, as Emily shared: “Charles is still receiving treatment for cancer and so Christmas at the ‘Big House’ may be more muted.
“Friends say that the extended Royal Family who were invited to Sandringham last year – among them Prince Andrew and his family, and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, are awaiting to see how Charles’ health holds up in the coming weeks, but they hope to all go.”
