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The Palace has just received a huge blow from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as it’s being reported that the couple will NOT be flying to the UK next month to spend Christmas with The Queen and the rest of the royal family at her country estate in Sandringham. Yikes!
“There’s a lot that goes into the logistics and the planning of the family Christmas, so of course, staff know that Harry and Meghan are not coming,” an insider told Page Six, before adding that this is the 95-year-old British monarch’s first Christmas without her husband Prince Philip, who died in April earlier this year, so she would have hoped that her grandson and granddaughter-in-law would have spent some of the holidays with her.
"If they were, they would have communicated it to their family by now," the source continued. "But this is Her Majesty’s first Christmas without her husband, so one would have hoped they would want to be with her." The source went on to add that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have not wanted to cause a media "frenzy" by arriving in the UK for Christmas, which might be their reasoning behind not accepting Her Majesty's invitation.
The source concluded: "I think everyone understands there will be a frenzy when they both come back to the UK, but they need to rip the Band-Aid off and get on with it." The Sussexes have not spent Christmas with the royal family since 2018. In 2019, they spent the winter holidays with their son Archie in Canada, and were unable to fly to the UK from their new home in California last year due to the COVID-related travel restrictions.
Prince Harry has been back to the UK twice this year, first to attend his grandfather’s funeral in April, and again in July for the unveiling of the Kensington Palace statue of his late mother, Princess Diana. Meghan stayed in California both times, as she was heavily pregnant in April and was told by doctors that she couldn’t fly; and she had only recently given birth to their daughter, Lilibet Diana, for Harry's second visit.
It's believed that The Queen will still be joined in Sandringham by her son and daughter in law Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, as well as her grandson and granddaughter-in-law Prince William and Kate Middleton, who will also accompany her to a Christmas morning church service. As it currently stands, Her Majesty is still expected to attend the Christmas church service at St Mary Magdalene church in Sandringham, despite having had to pull out of the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph on Sunday, November 14th due to a back sprain.
