PRINCE William let slip there will be more than 40 people gathered around the table at Sandringham for Christmas Day lunch this year.
And among the high profile attendees – such as the Princess of Wales, Princess Anne and Sophie Wessex – there will be some lesser known faces, including Wills’ ‘secret’ step-sister.
King Charles, 76, invited Queen Camilla’s children and grandchildren for the festivities for the first time last year – and he has welcomed them into the clan again.
Camilla, 77, has two children, Laura Lopes, 46, and Tom Parker Bowles, 49, from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, 84.
They became step-siblings of Prince William, 42, and Prince Harry, 40, when she married Charles in 2005.
Laura made her public debut with the Royal Family at the wedding and was seen giggling away with William and Harry.
However, the relationship between them hasn’t always been easy.
In Katie Nicholl’s 2010 book Harry and William, she wrote: “William and Laura used to have terrible fights over who was to blame for their broken homes.
“William would blame Camilla for all the hurt she had caused his mother [Princess Diana], which would send Laura into a rage.
“Laura was not having any of it. She would take a hard line and fire back at William, ‘Your father has ruined my life.’”
Tensions between William and Laura appear to have thawed over the years with her brother Andrew saying he “sympathises” with the scrutiny they have faced.
Laura is an established art curator and after working as a motoring correspondent for posh magazine Tatler in 2001, she turned her attention to art galleries.
She initially managed The Space Gallery, located in Belgravia, London, before going on to co-found and become gallery director of Eleven Fine Art for 11 years.
Now, she heads up her own exhibitions, is partial to the odd red carpet appearance and has been known to rub shoulders with a celeb or two.
Laura has previously attended major film premieres including the world premiere of James Bond movie Skyfall at the Tate Modern in 2012, but when she’s not taking on the art scene or at lavish events, you can find her carrying out her parenting duties as she is a mother to three kids.
Laura is married to chartered accountant Harry Lopes, 47, while her brother Tom is a writer and food critic, who is a regular on MasterChef.
Camilla’s grandkids include Lola, 17, and Freddy, 14, who are Tom’s kids, and Eliza, 16, and twins Gus and Louis, 14, who are Laura’s children.
All three of Camilla’s grandsons were page boys at the Royal Coronation in May, alongside her great-nephew Arthur Elliot.
EXPERT analysis by author and royal expert, Ingrid Seward.
Steadfast when his family needed him, William has proved himself as a man and future monarch of strength and compassion.
While he might not have been present during Kate’s courageous video address — make no mistake, he has been by her side every step of the way.
William has stepped up with school-run duties and provided a “great source of comfort and reassurance” to his wife.
But he has also been a comforting and reassuring presence for the public.
From leading members of the Royal Family at the Commonwealth Day Service to enjoying cheerful banter with youngsters on a youth centre visit, he hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Even then there were few chinks in his facade — but Kate was clearly on his mind.
“She needs to be sat here to hear this,” he smiled when the discussion turned to the challenges of young families.
But ultimately he is only human.
To have your father and your wife diagnosed with cancer in such quick succession is heart-shattering.
It’s a remarkable insight into the character of this young man that he has been so incredibly brave.
Theirs is a very private turmoil which has been brought into the public arena by the nature of their roles as future King and Queen.
William must feel the weight of enormous responsibility, both personally and for the monarchy, of which he is now the public face.
But he knows his most important role is that of dad and husband.
He will make that his priority.
This is a distinct difference from the ways of the past, where your royal role came before the role of spouse and parent.
Think back to when the Queen was young.
William’s priority is his family
It was a man’s world then — and she was forced to abandon her children in a way that William is determined not to.
William and Kate waited until the school term was over and their children were home before making their public announcement.
They needed to be prepared.
In this, they will have had the wholehearted support of Charles — who knows what it feels like to be brought up by nannies.
William was also acutely aware of the lack of his own father’s presence in his life, especially when things went wrong.
In 1991, he was accidentally hit over the head with a golf club when he was at school and Diana was having lunch in her favourite restaurant San Lorenzo.
The call came through that William had been bashed on the head and they thought he might die so it was very serious.
Both Charles and Diana rushed down to Ludgrove.
William was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and then to Great Ormond Street Hospital and Diana went with him.
But ever a man of duty, Charles prioritised his engagements.
William is determined to do things differently.
Prince Harry, 40, last spent the festive period with his family six years ago, back in 2018, before his move to the US.
And it’s thought that he will stay away again this year, after he was reportedly not invited to Sandringham.
Former royal correspondent Emily Andrews wrote in Woman: “Prince Harry is keen to spend the Christmas holidays in the UK with his wife and children – but Meghan wants to stay in the US.
“It’s a tricky time for Harry – he hasn’t spent Christmas here for six years and he could be forgiven for feeling rather lonely and estranged from his Windsor relatives.”
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
Typically the Royal Family flock to Sandringham for the Christmas period and attend church together on Christmas Day.
Prince Harry and Meghan have spent a total of two Christmases together with the extended Royal Family for the traditional celebrations.
The first was in 2017 when they were an engaged couple, and the second was in 2018 after their royal wedding.
They spent Christmas privately in 2019 on Vancouver Island, just before they announced they were stepping down as senior royals in 2020.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reportedly been extended an invite to spend Christmas with Harry’s uncle Charles Spencer at Althorp House in Northamptonshire, but would be missing out on seeing their extended family.
Emily added: “All the royals will gather at Sandringham in December, and I’m told that all the cousins, such as Eugenie, Beatrice, Zara and Peter Phillips, all look forward to the fun.”
Harry says he won’t bring his wife and children back here until he feels that he is in a secure position
Ingrid Seward
And despite not having made the guest list at Sandringham, Meghan Markle, 43, is said to be reluctant to fly over to the UK amid security woes and fears over a negative reaction from the public.
Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward told Fabulous: “I think the Duchess of Sussex’s views on coming back to the UK are probably pretty negative.
“I don’t imagine you would want to come back to a country where you are so universally disliked.
“And also there’s the problem of the security which is still not solved, and Harry says he won’t bring his wife and children back here until he feels that he is in a secure position.
“I do think that Harry and Meghan have a dilemma with their family life, because the children are getting older, and the children are probably absolutely intrigued to know what their cousins are like. They wouldn’t remember them.
“And I think that maybe an invitation from Charles Spencer might be attractive, and they would meet other cousins.”
William and Laura used to have terrible fights over who was to blame for their broken homes
Katie Nicholl
Ingrid claimed that “hunkering down in California” with their kids Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, is “more their style” than coming over to England for Christmas, but added “it is possible.”
She continued: “But then it’s going to raise a lot of questions. Is Harry going to see his father?
“Is he going to see any other members of his family?
“So I would think at the moment they’re undecided. They seem to make a lot of fairly last minute decisions in their lives.”
The royal expert claimed that Meghan’s hesitations about security and reaction give her a “good excuse” for her to not come over to England for Christmas, and she is likely to spend it instead with mum Doria Ragland in California.
On Christmas Day, we typically see the royals walking to Mary Magdalene Church for the 11am service.
Often we see extended family members, such as Charles’s niece Zara Tindall and her family.
On his House of Rugby podcast in 2018, Mike Tindall revealed that the royals typically have a buffet lunch after church.
He said: “Christmas Day is a little more quiet because it’s actually a cold buffet because they give everyone the day off.”
