The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are typically regular attendees at the annual Commonwealth Day Service, but were not present at Westminster Abbey today. Instead, King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales led the largest gathering of senior royals, including Princess Anne and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
It came amid reports that King Charles is set to discuss the issue of his disgraced brother Andrew and his place in the order of succession with Commonwealth leaders later this week. King Charles’s annual address to the family of nations was included in a special booklet given to the congregation.
The message read: “Working together, we can ensure that the Commonwealth continues to stand as a force for good…”
Last year, Duchess Sophie missed the event to travel to New York and support women’s and girls’ rights with Plan International UK. Edward, whose birthday was the same day as the event, also missed the service.
This year, neither the duke or duchess will be present at Commonwealth Day again.
The royals who attend, along with 1,800 guests, will take part in readings and performances that reflect the spirit of the Commonwealth this afternoon.
All were greeted on entry by the Dean of Westminster and presented to the Chapter and members of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
This year’s theme is focused on highlighting “collaboration as the defining strength of the modern Commonwealth“.
For the first time in 37 years, the BBC won’t be broadcasting today’s service live. Instead, they will be showing a property show – Escape to the Country.
The BBC said about the decision not to air the service live: “Our decision not to broadcast the Commonwealth Day ceremony in the same way we’ve done in previous years reflects the difficult choices we have to make in light of our funding challenges.
“BBC News plans to cover the service across its platforms, including the BBC One bulletins and rolling news channel.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
