Following King Charles’s cancer diagnosis last year, Queen Camilla asked her children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, to join the royals at Sandringham for Christmas. “My mum said ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time.’ 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,” her son Tom told Vanity Fair. Despite speculation they would join the royals for the annual walk to church on Christmas day, Camilla’s family did not make a public appearance.
This year, they will fully miss Christmas at Sandringham, Tom confirmed to the Daily Mail. “I’m not [spending Christmas at Sandringham],’ he said. “Nor is my sister. It’ll be every other year, one year on, one year off.” This Christmas, Tom will celebrate with his children Lola, 18, and Freddy, 15, at the home of his ex-wife Sara Buys. “It’s back to the sofa at my ex-wife’s,” he told the paper.
Last year, when asked if he knew anything about how the royals spend Christmas, Tom replied, “I genuinely know nothing about it. I know there’s turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.”
Previously, Tom shared that Camilla would sometimes join her family, including ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles, for a post-Christmas celebration. “My mother and father are still great friends, and we will go down on December 27 and my mother will sometimes come,” he told People. “It is something to work towards. It’s a maturity that is a great thing if — despite a marriage sometimes not working – you can keep it together for the sake of the children and the sake of each other, then it’s a very good thing.”
Tom and Laura rarely join Queen Camilla at royal events, but Laura did visit the set of Rivals earlier this month alongside Camilla.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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