This year, King Charles delivered his Christmas speech at Fitzrovia Chapel, a former London hospital chapel. Royal commentators theorized that Charles chose the location so that people wouldn’t analyze the family photos on display on one of his desks, because usually the Christmas speeches are staged in one of palaces or castles. Charles apparently chose the location because it was associated with a hospital, and because the Windsors have had a lot of medical and health crises in 2024. Charles said, in part: “From a personal point of view, I offer special, heartfelt thanks to the selfless doctors and nurses who, this year, have supported me and other members of my family through the uncertainties and anxieties of illness, and have helped provide the strength, care and comfort we have needed.” I saw people talking about how it was notable that Charles didn’t mention Kate by name, but it’s possible that he wanted to be more general about it because of Princess Anne’s head injury and hospitalization. Meanwhile, all of the royal commentators are talking about how there was no mention of the Sussexes as well.

King Charles crucially left Prince Harry and Prince Andrew out of his Christmas Day speech. While his annual message featured snippets of Prince William and the wider Royal Family, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, and his disgraced brother Prince Andrew, were not mentioned at all. According to royal expert and historian Dr Tessa Dunlop, the omission was a sign that the King had ‘clearly made up his mind’.

Analysing the King’s speech, Tessa told The Mirror: “Lest we are in any doubt, the clever film that accompanied this speech, underscored the importance of the King’s royal A-Team, on hand to deliver what Charles considers to be an alternative to global killing: a listening and understanding mission that leads to actions for the good of all.”

“As well as a replay of the King’s famous hug with the New Zealand women’s rugby team, there was footage of Kate at Trooping the Colour, Camilla in Scotland and Australia, William serving food to the homeless and, of course, those royal stalwarts, Princess Anne and the Edinburghs.”

Tessa noted: “Crucially, also-rans Princes Andrew and Harry were nowhere to be seen. The King has clearly made up his mind about how to ‘act for the good of all’, choosing to focus on family strengths, not weaknesses, to shore up a nation (and a world) for a difficult year ahead.”

It has been years since Harry and Andrew featured in the royal monarch’s Christmas speech, with the late Queen Elizabeth notably missing the pair from her message in 2019. The King has since ditched the tradition altogether.

[From The Daily Mirror]

The thing is, I don’t really care if Charles failed to mention or reference his son or one of his brothers in a Christmas speech. I get the idea that this is always supposed to be a more general speech, rather than a laundry list of grievances or a roll call of family members. The thing that bugs me is that Charles publicly ignoring one of his sons (not to mention a daughter-in-law and two of his grandkids) reflects how Charles treats the Sussexes privately, with zero interest or care or warmth. It simply doesn’t reflect well on Charles as a king or a father that he’s allowed this estrangement to metastasize to this point. Which was also what Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast said about the Christmas morning walk in his piece, “Royals’ Walk to Christmas Service Reveals Deep Family Dysfunction.”

The annual walk to the Church of St, Mary Magdalene is supposed to exude an impression of unity, stability, and conventional family values. Despite a rapturous reception by a crowd estimated at over 1,000 at this year’s promenade, it exposed deep fractures within the family.

While Kate and William and their children George, Charlotte and Louis were the stars of the show, there was zero public acknowledgement of the king’s other son, Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, or their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who are in self-imposed exile in California.

[From The Daily Beast]

I’m not sure how there could have been an “acknowledgement” of the Sussexes at the walk to church, but perhaps Charles and his courtiers could have NOT briefed the media that no invitations were extended to the Sussexes and that Charles does not give a sh-t about one of his sons and two of his grandkids?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.