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Why Queen Camilla’s children are skipping Christmas with the royal…

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Queen Camilla’s children won’t be joining the royal family for Christmas this year.

Tom Parker Bowles shared that he and his sister, Laura Lopes, are skipping their mom’s Sandringham celebration with King Charles III, according to the Daily Mail.

“I’m not [spending Christmas at Sandringham]. Nor is my sister. It’ll be every other year, one year on, one year off,” Bowles told the outlet’s Richard Eden Confidential column.

Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes aren’t celebrating Christmas with their mom, Queen Camilla, or the royal family. Getty Images
“I’m not [spending Christmas at Sandringham]. Nor is my sister. It’ll be every other year, one year on, one year off,” he told the Daily Mail. Getty Images

The food writer, 50, will instead be staying at his ex-wife Sara Buys’ home.

“It’s back to the sofa at my ex-wife’s,” he joked.

Bowles and Buys — who were married from 2005 to 2018 — share two kids: Lola, 18, and Freddy, 15.

Last year, Bowles told the Telegraph that his mom begged him and his sibling to join the royals for the holidays following Charles’ cancer diagnosis.

The food writer will instead spend the holiday with his ex-wife, with whom he shares two kids. Dave Benett/Getty Images for Boisdale of Canary Wharf / Ranald Macdonald
“It’s back to the sofa at my ex-wife’s,” he joked. Dave Benett/Getty Images for Fortnum & Mason

“My mum said, ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time,’” he said at the time, adding, “It has been a hell of a two years for them.”

“The older you get, the more conscious you become of mortality, especially with illnesses and the rest of it,” he added,

Camilla shares her two kids with ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles, to whom she was married from 1973 to 1995. She went on to marry Charles in 2005.

Last year, Camilla begged her son to attend the royal family’s Christmas gathering. Getty Images
Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to attend this year’s royal Christmas gathering. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Tom and Lopes, 47, aren’t the only kids expected to skip this year’s festivities at the king’s Norfolk retreat. 

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were memorably not invited to last year’s royal Christmas gathering.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not rang in the Yuletide with the royal family since 2018, the same year they tied the knot.

The news comes a few days after Charles, 77, and Camilla, 78, released their official Christmas card.

Their kids will also join in for the festivities. Getty Images
Middleton’s parents are reportedly celebrating the holidays with Charles and Camilla as well. WireImage

The cancer-stricken monarch — who revealed his diagnosis in February 2024 — allegedly wants to make this year’s Christmas extra special because it could be “his last.”

“Charles prioritizes duty, but he’s also a family man who knows his time is precious,” a source told Us Weekly. “He wants a special last Christmas in case it’s his last.”

The insider noted that Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to spend the holidays with Charles and Camilla, as well as their kids and the Princess of Wales’ parents.

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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