King Charles III, Queen Camilla and more royal family members kept up their annual Easter tradition, but Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton were notably missing from the festivities.
Charles, 76, and Camilla, 77, were joined by the king’s siblings Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward at an Easter church service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on Sunday, April 20. Anne and Edward’s respective spouses, Sir Tim Laurence and Duchess Sophie, also attended, as well as Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Representing the next generation, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were accompanied by their respective husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank. Plus, Beatrice and Eugenie’s cousin James, Earl of Wessex made a rare appearance next to his parents, Edward and Sophie.
Meanwhile, William, 42, Kate, 43, and their three children — Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6 — skipped the public outing.
Multiple outlets reported on Thursday, April 17, that William and Kate planned to skip the Easter church service with their fellow royals. A source told The Mirror at the time that the couple — who have been married since April 2011 — were “choosing to spend time together as a family before the children go back to school.”
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This marks the second consecutive year that William, Kate and their children opted not to attend the church service with the family on Easter. In March 2024, they missed the event due to Kate’s cancer battle, which led to her stepping back from public engagements as she underwent treatment. She has since revealed that she completed chemotherapy and her cancer is in remission.
“This is a big deal,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday of William and Kate’s decision to not celebrate Easter with the royal family this year.
“It’s royal tradition for the family to attend this together,” the insider continued. “Everyone understood the family not attending last year when Kate was sick but there’s been a lot of raised eyebrows at the palace about William’s decision to skip again this year. It feels like a deliberate move and even a snub.”
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Last year, Charles and Camilla were joined by Andrew, Ferguson, Anne, Edward and Sophie at the Easter service. At the time, the outing marked Charles’ first major public appearance since sharing his own cancer diagnosis that February. He sat separately from the main congregation and chose not to participate in the post-service reception and family lunch amid concerns for his health, but he briefly greeted well-wishers outside of the church.
One year later, Charles is still undergoing cancer treatment. In March, he was hospitalized due to “temporary side effects that required a short period of observation,” per Buckingham Palace. After postponing some of his engagements, Charles resumed his public duties on April 1.
