King Charles and Queen Camilla Lead Royal Family Christmas Walk After Challenging Year

King Charles and Queen Camilla led the royal family’s annual Christmas walk for the third year after a particularly difficult year in 2024 when both the king, 76, and Kate Middleton were diagnosed with cancer.

The royal couple were accompanied by several family members on their way to St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate, where the family traditionally spends the holidays every December. The annual walk involves members of the royal family interacting with the public and is an integral part of the royal diary each year. Kate and her husband Prince William (42) joined the King (76) and Queen (77) on this year’s Christmas walk. , and their children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6. Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, their children Lady Louise Windsor, 21, James, Earl of Wessex, 17, Princess Anne, her husband , Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, Anne’s children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips and their families also came out.

Queen Camilla and King Charles lead the royal family’s walk to church in Sandringham on December 25, 2024.

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Charles publicly announced his diagnosis on February 5, and Kate, 42, posted a video message announcing her own diagnosis on March 22. The types and stages of their cancers have not been made public, although the palace confirmed the king’s cancer was not prostate cancer, following his procedure in January for a benignly enlarged prostate.

On September 9, the Princess of Wales announced that her chemotherapy had ended, while the King’s cancer treatment was ongoing.

“His treatment is going in a positive direction and as a controlled condition, the treatment cycle will continue next year,” palace sources confirmed on December 20.

King Charles showed off his sense of humor during the last royal engagement before Christmas on December 19, joking: “I’m still alive” when asked how he was doing.

The outing comes weeks after Camilla was forced to miss several planned royal engagements due to an ongoing chest infection which she later revealed was a form of pneumonia.

Kate Middleton, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, Prince William and Prince George walk to church in Sandringham on December 25, 2024.

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Absent from the annual event were the king’s younger son, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, who were not invited to the family gathering and are understood to be celebrating the holiday in the US with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Also missing from the walk is Prince Andrew, who will not be spending Christmas at Sandringham as he did last year due to his association with an alleged Chinese spy. Sarah Ferguson, who was present for Christmas at Sandringham 2023 for the first time since the 1990s, was also absent. Their younger daughter, Princess Eugenie, decided to spend the holiday with her in-laws, while older sister Princess Beatrice, who is expecting her second child, planned to join her in-laws in Italy but was advised by doctors to avoid traveling during this stage of her pregnancy.

Princess Beatrice, her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and his son Christopher Woolf, eight, joined the royal family on the walk to church on Christmas Day. The couple’s daughter Sienna, 3, has not been spotted.

Christopher Woolf, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Beatrice walk to church in Sandringham on December 25, 2024.

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The new addition to Christmas at Sandringham is expected to be Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles, who said earlier this month: “My mum said, ‘I’d like you to come. I haven’t spent Christmas with you in a long time.’ ”

“I really don’t know anything about it,” he said of Christmas at Sandringham. “But I know there is turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and an evening jacket.”

Prince William reveals rare details of royal family’s private Christmas party: ‘It’s going to be noisy’

Earlier this month, Prince William shared rare details of the royal family’s Christmas plans during a visit to troops and their families in Bulford, Wiltshire on December 10, revealing: “We’ll be in Norfolk, at Sandringham. We will be 45 years old at Christmas. It won’t be quiet, it will be noisy.”

The annual gathering at Sandringham on Christmas Eve includes the traditional exchange of inexpensive gifts on December 24 and a procession on December 25 from Sandringham House to St Mary Magdalene Church on the estate. After greeting the public, they will return to Sandringham for a Christmas lunch that includes a traditional feast of turkey, glazed ham, roast potatoes, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and Christmas pudding, followed by the King’s annual Christmas speech, which is broadcast every year at 3pm British time.

Lady Louise Windsor, James Wessex, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, Vice-Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence and more members of the royal family walk to church in Sandringham on December 25, 2024.

Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty

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“Charles was always very, very fond of Sandringham,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously told PEOPLE. “Christmas is always connected with tradition in every family. They will keep it the same as it was.”

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Specifically about the tradition of the Christmas walk, Prince William previously said that the cornerstone of Christmas for the royal family is “the walk that my family has taken for many, many years on the way to church on Christmas Day. It must have been at least 25 years by now.”

“I have strong memories of walking here and of my grandfather [Prince Philip]he used to walk so fast that there would be huge gaps and gaps between all of us walking down and we’d be at the back with little legs trying to keep up,” William continued. “You know, I think over time you start to feel quite attached to those moments and those memories before.”

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Source: HIS Education