Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are “unlikely” to join the Royal Family for the first Christmas without The Queen, it has been claimed.
It comes following the ongoing tensions within the family, which are likely to be elevated even further with the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare next year.
Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and moved to America, with the couple only making rare visits back to the UK since.
King Charles is said to have invited his son and daughter-in-law to the Christmas celebrations at the Sandringham estate this year.
However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – who Charles has said remain “much loved” members of the family – will most likely not take up the newly-appointed King on his invite.
A source, described as a friend of the new King and Queen, told Daily Beast, “the reality is that no one is expecting Harry and Meghan to fly over, given that his book is hanging over everything.”
Royals ‘not expecting’ Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to attend
Another insider close to Charles also told Mail Online that the pair are “unlikely” to attend.
This year’s celebrations will mark the first time Charles has the responsibility of holding the annual family gathering at the private estate in Norfolk.
Since 1988, the Royals have made Sandringham their base for Christmas and New Year.
It is expected that Prince William and Kate Middleton will be attending and staying at nearby Anmer Hall, which was the home they were gifted by the Queen.
Last year, Harry and Meghan reportedly snubbed the Queen’s invite to celebrate Christmas at Sandringham.
It was reported that the couple turned down the invite in the hopes of avoiding a “media storm.”
Instead, they spent Christmas at their home in Montecito, California, with their two children, Archie and Lilibet.
Royal Family ‘hugely nervous’ about Harry’s memoir
Last month, it was claimed that the royal family is “hugely nervous” about Harry’s upcoming memoir.
Royal author Tom Bower spoke to Page Six to report that the Prince’s tell-all memoir, entitled Spare, is a “time bomb.”
The memoir was originally going to drop this fall, but it’s now being pushed back to January 2023, in the wake of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s passing in September.
Tom also claimed the book will include a chapter on the Queen’s funeral and “material about how they were snubbed.”