PRINCE William let slip there will be more than 40 people gathered around the table at Sandringham for Christmas Day lunch this year.
And among the high profile attendees – such as the Princess of Wales, Princess Anne and Sophie Wessex – there will be some lesser known faces, including Wills’ “secret” step-sister.
King Charles, 76, invited Queen Camilla’s children and grandchildren for the festivities for the first time last year – and he has welcomed them into the clan again.
Camilla, 77, has two children, Laura Lopes, 46, and Tom Parker Bowles, 49, from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, 84.
They became step-siblings of Prince William, 42, and Prince Harry, 40, when she married Charles in 2005.
Laura made her public debut with the Royal Family at the wedding and was seen giggling away with William and Harry.
However, the relationship between them hasn’t always been easy.
In Katie Nicholl’s 2010 book Harry and William, she wrote: “William and Laura used to have terrible fights over who was to blame for their broken homes.
“William would blame Camilla for all the hurt she had caused his mother [Princess Diana], which would send Laura into a rage.
“Laura was not having any of it. She would take a hard line and fire back at William, ‘Your father has ruined my life.’”
Tensions between William and Laura appear to have thawed over the years with her brother Andrew saying he “sympathises” with the scrutiny they have faced.
Laura is an established art curator and after working as a motoring correspondent for posh magazine Tatler in 2001, she turned her attention to art galleries.
She initially managed The Space Gallery, located in Belgravia, London, before going on to co-found and become gallery director of Eleven Fine Art for 11 years.
Now, she heads up her own exhibitions, is partial to the odd red carpet appearance and has been known to rub shoulders with a celeb or two.
Laura has previously attended major film premieres including James Bond movie Skyfall at the Tate Modern in 2012.
Laura is married to chartered accountant Harry Lopes, 47, and is now a mother of three to Eliza, 16, and twins Gus and Louis, 14.
Her brother Tom is a writer and food critic, who is a regular on MasterChef.
He is a dad to Lola, 17, and Freddy, 14.
All three of Camilla’s grandsons were page boys at the Royal Coronation in May, alongside her great-nephew Arthur Elliot.
Prince Harry, 40, last spent the festive period with his family six years ago, back in 2018, before his move to the US.
And it’s thought that he will stay away again this year, after he was reportedly not invited to Sandringham.
Former royal correspondent Emily Andrews wrote in Woman: “Prince Harry is keen to spend the Christmas holidays in the UK with his wife and children – but Meghan wants to stay in the US.
“It’s a tricky time for Harry – he hasn’t spent Christmas here for six years and he could be forgiven for feeling rather lonely and estranged from his Windsor relatives.”
Typically the Royal Family flock to Sandringham for the Christmas period and attend church together on Christmas Day.
Prince Harry and Meghan have spent a total of two Christmases together with the extended Royal Family for the traditional celebrations.
The first was in 2017 when they were an engaged couple, and the second was in 2018 after their royal wedding.
They spent Christmas privately in 2019 on Vancouver Island, just before they announced they were stepping down as senior royals in 2020.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reportedly been extended an invite to spend Christmas with Harry’s uncle Charles Spencer at Althorp House in Northamptonshire, but would be missing out on seeing their extended family.
Emily added: “All the royals will gather at Sandringham in December, and I’m told that all the cousins, such as Eugenie, Beatrice, Zara and Peter Phillips, all look forward to the fun.”
Harry says he won’t bring his wife and children back here until he feels that he is in a secure position
Ingrid Seward
And despite not having made the guest list at Sandringham, Meghan Markle, 43, is said to be reluctant to fly over to the UK amid security woes and fears over a negative reaction from the public.
Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward told Fabulous: “I think the Duchess of Sussex’s views on coming back to the UK are probably pretty negative.
“I don’t imagine you would want to come back to a country where you are so universally disliked.
“And also there’s the problem of the security which is still not solved, and Harry says he won’t bring his wife and children back here until he feels that he is in a secure position.
“I do think that Harry and Meghan have a dilemma with their family life, because the children are getting older, and the children are probably absolutely intrigued to know what their cousins are like. They wouldn’t remember them.
“And I think that maybe an invitation from Charles Spencer might be attractive, and they would meet other cousins.”
William and Laura used to have terrible fights over who was to blame for their broken homes
Katie Nicholl
Ingrid claimed that “hunkering down in California” with their kids Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, is “more their style” than coming over to England for Christmas, but added “it is possible”.
She continued: “But then it’s going to raise a lot of questions. Is Harry going to see his father?
“Is he going to see any other members of his family?
“So I would think at the moment they’re undecided. They seem to make a lot of fairly last minute decisions in their lives.”
The royal expert claimed that Meghan’s hesitations about security and reaction give her a “good excuse” for her to not come over to England for Christmas, and she is likely to spend it instead with mum Doria Ragland in California.
On Christmas Day, we typically see the royals walking to Mary Magdalene Church for the 11am service.
Often we see extended family members, such as Charles’s niece Zara Tindall and her family.
On his House of Rugby podcast in 2018, Mike Tindall revealed that the royals typically have a buffet lunch after church.
He said: “Christmas Day is a little more quiet because it’s actually a cold buffet because they give everyone the day off.”
