If things seem a little quiet on the British royals news front, you’re not imagining it: the family’s annual break is underway.

Each year, King Charles and Queen Camilla head up to Balmoral, the royals’ Scottish residence, to spend the summer, where they’re joined by members of the family. For the second year running, at least one notable absence is expected.

Per The Times, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is “not expected” to score an invitation to Balmoral from his big brother, as the fallout of his personal ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his arrest in February continues.

The publication reports the King has “no plans” for the former Duke of York to join him for during the break, and that Andrew appearing alongside the rest of the family would raise “considerable sensitivities”.

Andrew now lives on the royal family’s Norfolk estate, Sandringham, having moved into a five-bedroom farmhouse called Marsh Farm in April following his eviction from Royal Lodge in Windsor weeks earlier.

The report comes days after the formal closure of Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s charity.

Sarah’s Trust, which was dedicated to “supporting frontline, grassroots work to address the humanitarian and environmental crisis, the hunger crisis and issues perpetuating cycles of extreme poverty”, is marked as ‘removed’ on the public register of charities, the BBC reported.

Following new details about Ferguson’s personal ties to and contact with Epstein, Sarah’s Trust, which had been in operation since 2020, said in February that it would close “for the forseeable future”.

“We remain extremely proud of the work of the trust over recent years,” the charity said in a statement at the time.

King Charles and Queen Camilla are already in Balmoral for the summer, and made a special appearance at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in Glasgow last week.

A video skit showed the couple being ‘collected’ from the estate in Doctor Who’s TARDIS as it flew through Scotland before materialising on stage at The Hydro stadium. Charles and Camilla then emerged to cheers from the crowd.

The public doesn’t tend to hear much from the royals during their holiday, and their public appearances and engagements are dramatically scaled back.

However, one thing is for sure: some eyebrow-raising headlines will emerge nevertheless.

In fact, the holiday period has come to be known as ‘Silly Season’ due to the ridiculous royal (and general news) stories that are published in the UK media during the hiatus.

The nickname has a long history; the first known reference to ‘Silly Season’ was in an article published in the Saturday Review, a London weekly newspaper established in 1855.

Royal commentator Victoria Arbiter says to read most royal headlines published in August with “a degree of skepticism and a healthy sense of humour”.