At this very moment, I’m giving myself a chance to feel a small glimmer of hope that the British tabloids have punched themselves out about Duchess Meghan. Punched themselves out… for the time being. We still have a little bit more than a week to go until Christmas. There’s the Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace to look forward to, and then the Christmas morning church walk at Sandringham, and then the end-of-the-year event numbers for all the royals. The British papers will have stories connected to those events in the weeks to come, and so it’s my hope that we’re done with the smear campaign for the moment. So consider this the last gasp, the last attempts to gin up some kind of drama.

The Daily Mail reported this weekend that Kensington Palace has officially confirmed that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be spending Christmas at Sandringham. We heard this weeks ago, but the palace is just confirming it now. Will and Kate will not be in Bucklebury. They will be at Anmer Hall. Well, that’s an assumption on my part – the Daily Mail noted: “Kensington Palace today confirmed the couples would be spending the day at the royal estate but could not confirm where they would spend the remainder of the festive period.” There’s also no palace confirmation about who is staying where within the Sandringham property. But The Sun’s sources claim that Harry and Meghan have turned down William and Kate’s offer to stay at Anmer Hall:

Prince Harry and Meghan have snubbed Wills and Kate this Christmas, The Sun can reveal. The Sussexes will be with the Queen at Sandringham amid increasing rumours of a rift between the two couples. Harry and mum-to-be Meghan turned down the option of staying at Wills and Kate’s Norfolk home Anmer Hall, where they had a “fantastic” time with the kids last year.

A royal source said: “There’s not a huge amount of room at Sandringham so it’s quite surprising. Maybe they just want their own space. Things are civil between the couples but they don’t spend much time together.”

[From The Sun]

I seem to remember calling this weeks ago, but honestly, it’s a blur. I said that Prince Charles rode in and saved the day (at least according to HIS version of events) and ordered William and Kate to invite the Sussexes to Anmer. And I said that offer would put Meg and Harry in an uncomfortable position either way – they could stay with the Cambridges and have to hear about how Mean Diva Meg made Poor Kate Cry White Tears for the second Christmas in a row, or they could decline the offer and then the story is “Diva Meg refuses to be in the same house as Steel Marshmallow Kate.” When really, if there is still a beef, the beef is mostly about William and Harry. Anyhoodle… I hope Meghan and Harry just stay at the main Sandringham house and not Anmer.

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