23 December 2021

Charles and Camilla to join Queen on Christmas Day

23 December 2021

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be with the Queen on Christmas Day, a Clarence House spokesman has said.

The Queen will be staying at Windsor for her first Christmas without her late husband the Duke of Edinburgh, rather than travelling to Sandringham as usual.

But she will be joined by members of her family over the festive period, including a visit from Charles and Camilla on Christmas Day.

A spokesperson from Kensington Palace said the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meanwhile will be spending Christmas in Norfolk and will be joined by some members of the Middleton family.

The Queen took the decision to remain at Windsor as a “precautionary” measure following rising Covid-19 case numbers.

Last year, the Queen and Philip also spent the Christmas period at Windsor.

The Queen pictured at a church service in Sandringham in 2019 (Joe Giddens/PA) (PA Wire)

The head of state normally hosts her family at Sandringham in Norfolk over the holidays, and they are watched by crowds as they attend church on December 25.

It has not yet been confirmed where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be spending Christmas.

The news follows the Queen’s cancellation of her traditional pre-Christmas lunch with her extended family, which had been scheduled for Tuesday.

The Queen at the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

She has spent much of this year at Windsor Castle, where she and Philip remained after Christmas as they shielded throughout the lockdowns.

The 95-year-old monarch lost the duke, her husband of more than 73 years, on April 9, with his funeral held within the castle’s confines during coronavirus restrictions.

In October this year, the Queen was admitted to hospital overnight for preliminary investigations and ordered by her doctors to rest.

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