What’s haunting the Queen’s Xmas?
Behind the traditional regal smiles this festive season, our 93-year-old Monarch must be hiding a world of heartache and disappointment
It’s been a dreadful year for the Queen and the Royal Family, by anyone’s standards. The Monarch’s annual trip to Sandringham looks to be an exercise in damage limitation this year, rather than a joyful, relaxing break.
Christmas for the Windsors has always been about family, and this year will be no different – but that family has never been more divided.
So much so, that royal onlookers are not expecting a royal gathering of happy smiles and sherries around an open fire – rather, a difficult time for all as they put a year of criticism and scandal behind them.
The Sandringham Estate is on the Norfolk coast, a stone’s throw away from Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge’s rural residence, Anmer Hall – and they will no doubt attend, with their adorable children George, six, Charlotte, four, and one-year-old Louis.
Megan and Harry will also be invited, with their firstborn son, Archie – and at just six months’ old, this will be his first Royal Christmas.
But given recent events, there’s bound to be tension in the air. Will the Sussexes – who have spoken about the pressures of royal life and seem to want to do things their way – even take up the invite?
Or will they spend 25 December in the warmer climes of Meghan’s native California, where her mother, Doria, lives and closer to celeb pals like Serena Williams and Priyanka Chopra?
Whatever they do, they will make headlines – much to the regret of the rest of the family. Indeed, it’s been a year of bad publicity for the Royals’ newest family unit.
The Sussexes were slammed as ‘ hypocrites’ earlier this year as they flew in private jets whilst begging people to think about climate change.
In August, reports of a rift between the formerly close brothers were cemented with the official break-up of the so called ‘Fab Four’, Meghan and Harry pulling out of the Royal Foundation charity they’d shared with Kate and William, to set up their own.
In October, the Sussexes spoke openly and emotionally in ‘that’ African documentary – with mixed results. Now regarded as a PR disaster, Harry appeared to confirm a serious rift with his brother, and Meghan ruffled feathers by suggesting – whilst surrounded by people in true poverty – that she
was ‘existing’, not ‘ living’.
Not only is the tellall documentary meant to have angered Prince Charles, it’s thought to have deeply upset the Queen, too. It’s to this backdrop that she will hope to gather her grandsons and their partners at Sandringham alongside husband Philip and son Charles, to try to find a peaceful way forward.
However, warring grandsons is small fry compared to the scandal threatening to engulf her second son and reputed favourite child, Prince Andrew, 59.
If HM didn’t have enough headaches, this is perhaps the darkest chapter of this annus horribilis – the fact that Andrew, father to two young women, has been enveloped in America’s biggest sex abuse scandal for years.
Like any mother, she must be worried sick about the fate of her son. With pressure growing over allegations of sexual abuse – one ‘victim’ even asking when Andrew was ‘going to jail’ – his reputation is taking a battering, albeit that he insists he took appropriate steps to sever his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and has done nothing wrong.
Though Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August, having apparently committed suicide, more and more people are speaking out.
Virginia Giuffre alleges she was the teenage sex slave of Epstein in his New York and Palm Beach mansions. Now 35, she maintains the Prince had sex with her multiple times when she was 17 – legally underage in Florida – something he has strenuously denied.
She said in a recent TV interview: ‘Prince Andrew should go to jail. I mean, is he ever going to? Probably not.’
In the same week, a US TV host claimed that, in 2015, the Royals put pressure on her employers to kill a report into the Epstein story, involving the Prince.
‘ We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will, that also quashed the story,’ claimed Amy Robach in resurfaced footage, but last week Robach took back her words, saying: ‘..no one ever told me or the team to stop reporting on Jeffrey Epstein,’ while ABC news stated: ‘ We have never stopped investigating the story.’
Surely, the Queen’s biggest Christmas wish will be that next year is nowhere near as disastrous as this one was.