While Prince Harry may have started to make amends with his father King Charles after meeting up with him last month, the Duke of Sussex is still not likely to spend Christmas with his royal relatives this year. Although unconfirmed, it is believed Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, and their two children will not be on the Christmas guest list at Sandringham.
Instead, they are likely to spend the festive season at their home in Montecito, California. The lack of an invitation to spend Christmas Day with the royals may not have come as a surprise to the prince, who quit royal life in 2020, as he has not attended the royal festivities for seven years.
However, although the prince may feel some kind of way about this, a royal expert has issued a damning seven-word verdict about the prince and Meghan Markle’s absence from Christmas at Sandringham.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said: “They are not likely to be missed!”
He said: “This year, as the thoughts of many around the Commonwealth and the wider world turn to the Royal Family at Christmas, especially given King Charles’s health struggle and with Catherine in remission, the Sussexes will noticeably be absent yet again.
“They will doubtless enjoy Christmas in California, but considering how erratically and destructively they have behaved since Megxit, they are not likely to be missed!”
Mr Fitzwilliams also said that while Harry may now be used to spending Christmas away from his royal relatives, some of whom he has rifts with, he will no doubt think fondly of past memories at Sandringham.
The expert said: “Harry does write warmly of Christmas memories in his ill-judged memoir, Spare. With his father continuing to undergo treatment for cancer, his thoughts, as with many exiles, will undoubtedly occasionally turn to fond memories of past Christmases as well.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s last Christmas at Sandringham was in 2018 – the year before their son Prince Archie was born. The couple’s children Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, have never spent Christmas with their royal relatives.
Mr Fitzwilliams said this is “sad but inevitable” as a result of Harry’s tricky relationship with some of his royal relatives over the past five years. These fractured relationships are believed to be the result of some of Harry and Meghan’s actions since quitting royal life, which includes criticising the Firm in their 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, their 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan, and in Harry’s 2023 memoir Spare.
It is not yet known which royals will be at Sandringham on December 25 this year.