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The Royal Family is gathering for Christmas celebrations. But amid the festivities, there will be ongoing concerns for the health of King Charles, as his cancer treatment continues — and a notable absence, sparked by a high-profile controversy involving an alleged Chinese spy.
Word emerged Friday that Charles, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer early this year, will carry on with his treatment in 2025.
“His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year,” a Buckingham Palace source said, according to Reuters.
The palace source said there had been no change in Charles’s health and the news that his treatment would continue in 2025 did not represent any significant update.
But his pre-Christmas schedule was an indication of his determination to stay busy. His events wrapped up Friday with a visit to the London district of Walthamstow, which staged a large counter-protest in August in response to countrywide rioting.
During the visit, Charles was asked how he is. He jokingly replied: “I’m still alive,” Sky News reported.
Justin Vovk, a royal commentator and sessional history professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., says royal officials are “still being very mum” about Charles’s cancer, but “the fact that he’s still having public engagements means that his health is at least to some degree under control.”
For Charles, the continued focus on carrying out public duties appears to be a high priority.
“For the Royals, this is part of their core values,” Vovk said in an interview Friday.
“The job is getting out and meeting people, interacting with people.”
It’s been a difficult year for the Royals — Prince William called it “brutal” — as both his father, Charles, and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, were diagnosed with cancer.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, says in a video released by Kensington Palace on Monday that the last nine months have been ‘incredibly tough’ for her family, but she’s now in a ‘new phase of recovery’ after completing chemotherapy that should allow her to attend some public engagements in the coming months.
Catherine said in late summer her preventive chemotherapy treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer was finished.
Since then, she has made a gradual return to public duties, with limited appearances at high-profile events.
Catherine’s announcement of finishing her treatment came in a video, and a photo from that video appeared on her family’s Christmas card this year.
She also hosted her fourth annual Christmas Carol service at Westminster Abbey in London on Dec. 6. The service will be televised in the U.K. on Christmas Eve.
William, Catherine and their children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — are expected along with other members of the Royal Family, to celebrate Christmas at Charles’s Sandringham Estate northeast of London. They were not present at a pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace this week, and according to media reports were already at their rural home near Sandringham.
The family members’ Christmas morning walk to and from church is closely watched for who is — and isn’t — there, as well as who is walking alongside whom and what it might say about relations within the family.
This year, one notable absence is expected — that of Charles’s younger brother, Prince Andrew.
British media reported this week that Andrew won’t be at Sandringham, and he didn’t attend the pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace amid allegations of a close friendship with an alleged Chinese spy.
It’s the latest example of controversy sparked by his associations. His reputation sank like a stone and he withdrew from public royal duties after a disastrous BBC interview in 2019 regarding his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But he had continued to attend high-profile royal family occasions, so his absence at Christmas events this year is notable.
That absence, however, is not surprising, said Vovk, who sees it as a family decision.
“A lot of people, myself included, have been predicting that since [Queen Elizabeth] died, we would be seeing Andrew less and less,” Vovk said.
“It’s happened a bit slower than certainly I expected, but given all of the controversy, given all of the drama surrounding Prince Andrew and the very clear desire from the King and the Prince of Wales to be distancing themselves from … that taint of scandal, as the monarchy has always done … I’m not surprised in the least that they wouldn’t include him there.”
Also expected to be absent at the royal Christmas are Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their children, who live in California.
Harry and Meghan released a Christmas card this week that included a picture of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet running toward their parents. It was a rare public viewing of an image of the children, who have been kept out of the public eye.
“When we look at Harry’s upbringing and we look at the indisputable trauma that he endured … that to me is a natural decision,” Vovk said, noting the two have wanted to protect their children from too much media scrutiny.
In the card, Vovk also saw an effort to “very deliberately control or craft an image around them being a happy family, a united couple and one that is more accessible to the public.”
He also saw a contrast with the image on the card from William and Catherine.
“That is one of, if not the most informal and relaxed family portraits of any generation of the [Royal Family] I think that we’ve ever seen.”
The Royal Family Christmas gathering at Sandringham is expected to be a large affair, with Prince William noting that 45 people are likely to attend.
Christmas is an important time for the Royal Family, says Toronto-based author and historian Carolyn Harris.
“Their Christmas traditions date from the reign of Queen Victoria, including the Christmas trees popularized by Prince Albert and the focus on multiple generations of the Royal Family enjoying a family celebration together,” Harris said via email last week.
“The Royal Family open presents on Christmas Eve, following traditions from Germany, birthplace of Prince Albert and Denmark, birthplace of Queen Alexandra, consort of King Edward VII.”
Royal marriages have brought new traditions to the family Christmas, including Catherine presenting Queen Elizabeth with homemade chutney from a Middleton family recipe at her first Christmas with the family, Harris said.
“While Christmas is an important family occasion, it’s also one of the rare times when the monarch speaks directly to the public by means of the televised Christmas message.”
Queen Elizabeth wanted large family gatherings at Christmas, and there was speculation that in the reign of Charles, who has otherwise favoured a slimmed-down working Royal Family, there would be smaller get-togethers at Christmas.
But that isn’t proving to be the case. And this year, new guests are expected, with the attendance of Queen Camilla’s son from her first marriage, Tom Parker Bowles.
Parker Bowles’s attendance comes as no surprise to Vovk, who notes the Royal Family makeup is not unlike many other families.
“I think a lot of us forget sometimes that the Royal Family is a blended family, that the Queen is a mother and grandmother and the Christmas gathering at Sandringham, while it is a royal event, it is technically still the family’s Christmas tradition,” he said.
“So why shouldn’t Camilla’s children and grandchildren get to be there with their mother and grandmother for the holidays?”
It should also come as no surprise, Vovk suggested, that year by year, there are changes within the Royal Family’s Christmas traditions.
“Over time these small ritual changes or ceremonial changes then lead to larger shifts that have very gradually pivoted without rocking the boat too much.”
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