It’s the holidays! The royal family met for their annual Easter service, but without their matriarch. Queen Elizabeth llSunday, April 17.
Prince WilliamAnd Duchess KateCelebrate with them eldest children: Prince George, 8, and Princess Charlotte, 6. (The couple also shares Prince Louis, 3. During Sunday’s service, George and Charlotte donned coordinating blue looks — which matched their parents — as they were spotted entering mass at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. During the elementary schoolers’ first official Easter appearance, they also had the chance to meet one of the chapel’s clergymen.
The Duchess and Duke of Cambridge, both 39, shared their joy with their Instagram followers. The twosome — who married in April 2011 — shared a “Happy Easter” card on their Story.
Last year, they were unable participate in their traditional Easter practice with Queen Elizabeth. During the coronavirus pandemic, William and Kate, opted to spend the 2021 holiday conducting an Easter egg hunt for their little ones at their country home in Norfolk, England.
According to Buckingham Palace, the 95-year-old queen’s Easter weekend is typically “privately spent with family.” However, the COVID-19 pandemic has kept the royals from fully gathering since 2019.
Days before the family’s Easter gathering — sans the queen — Elizabeth spent time with Prince HarryAnd Meghan MarkleOn their way to The Netherlands, Harry and the Invictus Games, they stopped by her Windsor Castle residence. Harry, 37, and the reunion was their first. SuitsThe 40-year-old alum has returned to the U.K. as a married couple after their 2020 departure from their royal duties.
In the days leading up the holiday, her Majesty spent some time with Harry and Meghan. However she didn’t miss her Maundy Friday tradition. Pre-pandemic, her majesty used to travel to different cathedrals across the U.K. on Thursdays before Easter to give out coins to recognize community and church contributions.
However, the monarch didn’t participate in the tradition this year. Her eldest son, Prince CharlesHe and his wife. Camilla DuchessShe was succeeded by. This was only the fifth time the queen has missed the service in her 70-plus years on the throne.
While Harry and Meghan’s pre-Easter visit with the queen was The Bench author’s first time back across the pond since settling in California, Harry has been in his native country on multiple occasions, including to attend the funeral of Elizabeth’s husband, Prince PhilipIn April 2021. However, the BetterUp CIO was not at the family’s memorial for the late Duke of Edinburgh last month.
“It’s disappointing [because there] doesn’t appear to be any serious reason why he can’t be there,” royal expert Robert Jobson exclusively told Us Weekly in March. “He’s going to a Holland for the Invictus Games shortly afterwards.”
The Duke of Sussex requested a review by the judicial court of a home-office decision. He claimed that he was unable pay for police protection for his family when he was away from home. The Sussexes are proud of their son Archie, 2 years old, and Lilibet, 10 month old.
“Security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed whilst in the U.K.,” Harry’s team said in a January statement. “In absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return home.”
Scroll below to see more photos from the royals’ Easter outing:
