Royal | News - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson have been pictured leaving Royal Lodge, their home in Windsor, on Christmas Day.
The ex-husband and wife spent the festive day far from senior members of the Firm and other royal relatives, who instead joined King Charles and Queen Camilla for the annual gathering at Sandringham.
The royal pair were spotted just minutes before the broadcasting of King Charles’s third Christmas speech – suggesting Andrew and Fergie, as the Duchess of York is affectionately known among friends and fans, may have not watched the key broadcast.
Prince Andrew, 64, has been has been dogged by links to an alleged Chinese spy in recent weeks seemingly leading to him to distance himself from the rest of the royals.
Andrew and Sarah’s eldest daughter Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi attended the service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham with the rest of the Royal Family. Beatrice had changed her travel plans due to medical advice during her pregnancy.
Princess Eugenie, her husband, Jack Brooksbank, and their sons, August and Ernest. are reported to be spending the day with Jack’s family.
Also not making an appearance today were the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, who have been celebrating Christmas in California with their children, five-year-old Archie and Lilibet, aged three.
Back in the UK, the Princess of Wales hugged and spoke with a cancer patient after attending the royal family’s traditional Christmas Day church service following her own “brutal” year with the disease.
Kate, alongside her husband the Prince of Wales and their children. Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, joined the King and Queen as they walked the short distance from Sandringham House to St Mary Magdalene Church, past a crowd of well-wishers.
Some had camped overnight to catch a glimpse of the royals walking to church in Norfolk.
Following the service, which lasted about 45 minutes, Kate hugged 73-year-old Karen Maclean from North Lincolnshire, who said she had had “20 years of cancer”, as she spoke with both the princess and Charles about the disease.
Ms Maclean said: “We just had a little talk about cancer, really. I’ve met the King before. He said to me ‘I can remember you’, I’m thinking ‘what!’, like many years ago?”
She said that Charles and Kate seemed “very well actually, considering what they’re going through”.
And Ms Mclean added that hugging Kate was a “privilege”.