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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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