Over the years, I’ve read a lot about the warring factions within the British royal family. They’re dysfunctional and petty, which makes them a normal family, only richer and with more at stake. It’s no secret that Prince Charles and Prince Andrew are at war, and it’s no secret that Prince Philip cannot stand Sarah Ferguson. So in the days leading up to Princess Eugenie’s wedding, I expected to hear some tea about how Philip decided not to go to the wedding, or how Charles was releasing some shady information about his brother. I was not expecting this though: Camilla is the one who is skipping Eugenie’s wedding. What the what?
The final preparations are being made for the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on Friday, but at least one senior royal will not be there. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is unable to head down from Scotland, where she and Prince Charles are currently staying, because she has a day of duties. The royal, 71, is set to attend a harvest festival, visit a school and step out for another engagement close to the home she and Charles, 69, share in the Highlands, PEOPLE understands.
Her diary was already set when the wedding date was set: “These are long-standing invitations,” says a source at the couple’s Clarence House office.
It’s not like Eugenie and Jack *just* confirmed their wedding date a month ago. They set the date a while back too, right around Meghan and Harry’s wedding, if I remember correctly. Did Camilla really have these events on her calendar all this time? Or does she really not care about the York princesses? The thing is, while Charles and Andrew despise each other these days, I’ve always heard that Charles and Camilla are somewhat fond of the York princesses. William and Harry are fond of them too, and Harry is especially close to his cousins and they have the same social circle. Hm. So, is it shady? Or is it a non-story?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Always shady when it comes to the royals. Tons of dysfunction there. Eugenie and Jack announced their engagement back in January for heavens sake.
I don’t think people from that shool would’ve been mad at her for not attending because of a wedding so this is somthing shady to me.
Yeah, I was a little surprised to read this. Seems shady.
Made in the shade.
It’s a two day event right? Maybe Camilla will attend the second day, and no one really cares either way that she’s going to miss the ceremony?
The fact that his is just being announced tells me that Camilla has had it with the wedding antics of the Yorks and is at an age and position where this doesn’t really matter to her. Her choice. I understand the need to distance oneself from toxic people too.
I’ll tell you what’s shady – Us UK taxpayers being expected to bank roll this BS.
It was bad enough with the Harry and Megan debacle earlier this year.
THIS.
That the taxpayers picked up a £42m tab for a private event…and will do again in a couple of days…ugh
I know I say this all the time, but Jesus Christ, why are we paying for their fancy functions while teachers are literally having to buy their own school supplies?
I’m resigned to it now. The weather is supposed to be apocalyptically bad on Friday, maybe they’ll skip the wretched carriage ride.
£42 mil was the rumored security cost to piss people off. The actual, realistic cost was between £2-4 mil for H&M and £6 mil for W&K. Be mad all you want, but throwing out hyper inflated numbers doesn’t help your point.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2018060149107/prince-harry-meghan-markle-wedding-security-cost/%3fviewas=amp
I side eye anyone that believed/believes the £42 mill numbers.Its very obvious that a wedding outside London in a small town would not cost more than a semi state one that took place right in London full of foreign royals and state politicians. I mean common sense people
I think the event was planned at the time of the announcement. Charles has things scheduled about year in advance and presumably Camilla does too. That said there was time to reschedule so the fact it wasn’t is interesting. I feel like Camilla pointed out the conflict to Charles and he was okay with her not attending the wedding. I don’t think Camilla cares either way. And I also think any snub related issues still have to do with Andrew and not the girls.
Oh, it’s a snub all right. Three of the senior Royals are not attending. Phillip, Charles and Camilla. Thats a big thing to them, don’t care really over here in the U.S. We have our own problems!
What? No, Charles is attending. I think Philip is as well, as far as we know at this point at any rate.
Where are you reading that Philip and Charles aren’t attending? So far, only Camilla is a confirmed no.
I can 100% see Philip bailing at the last minute, but he’s almost 100 (and hates their mother).
Charles is attending.
I don’t see a snub, I see a step-aunt who already had a day of work scheduled. I expect Charles to be there. I expect Philip at the service itself but not the reception dinner or any of the Saturday events. Both Philip and Fergie were at Harry and Meghan wedding and no bolts of lighting came down from the sky.
Yeah, everything is not some big conspiracy. Not seeing a snub either.
isn’t she just aunt?
also, i don’t see any big conspiracy either. i mean, harry didn’t go a christening, william didn’t go to his cousin’s wedding…
I noticed at Harry’s wedding and leaving Prince Louis christening Camilla was constantly fanning herself. She may have a health problem or gets really over heated. I know she had back surgery a few years ago and maybe sitting too long is painful?
There has to be more to the Charles-Andrew feud than just brotherly rivalry and a gradual marginalization of the York princesses’ status. I think there is some very real tea here, and it quite possibly centers around Camilla/Andrew never accepting Camilla/ Andrew making comments about Camilla, and whereas Charles, as uncle/brother/ future king can’t easily skip the wedding, Camilla has no fucks to give (why I really do love her), and she’d rather hang with schoolkids in Scotland than hear her friend-of-Epstein pedo brother-in-law insult her…
Just a theory…
I would agree with this theory.
I am not a royals watcher but this sounds good to me. More power to her.
I’m accepting this as canon 😉
I could see Andrew resenting Charles for getting to divorce and re-marry the woman of his choosing. Basically for getting what he wanted in his personal life in spite of all the scandal.
Rumor was Andrew and Fergie didn’t want to divorce but the Queen made them (or the Queen and Prince Philip). Andrew retaliated by letting Fergie live with him at Windsor for two decades and buying a house together in Switzerland. If Charles sided with the Queen and Philip, and continues to say No Fergie in the Family, Andrew would cling to resentment about it.
That’s something I’ve never been 100% clear on. ARE Andrew and Fergie still a couple??
L84Tea, word is, that while they date others this whole time, Andrew’s Royal Lodge (home base) is home base to Fergie (as well as the owning the chalet in Switzerland (still fishy in my mind how they got the $$$$ for that!)). I’ve also heard rumors that they’re just waiting for Philip to kick the bucket to remarry. The Queen doesn’t mind her (as is evidenced by her allowing Fergie on Sandringham at Christmas, though she has to leave before Philip gets there). TQ bows to PP in matters of the family, and PP HATES Fergie with the passion of a thousand suns. NOT for her affairs, but for GETTING CAUGHT ON CAM *HAVING* that affair, and causing embarrassment for TRF.
Ahh, gotcha. Interesting. I’m extremely curious to see what will happen after PP kicks it.
This maybe a stupid question but how does one as a grown ass man be made to divorce his wife if he didn’t want to divorce her? And then be salty the rest of your life “HELLO “ you made that choice you didn’t have too. Seems to me he doesn’t have a backbone.
When you live off the taxpayers, you’ll be kicked off that gravy train if you don’t do what mummy and daddy tell you. If he had a spine, he and Sarah would have stayed married, he’d remove himself from the line of succession, and they’d have lived together as man and wife in Switzerland for years.
That is why they got divorce? She had an affair?
Camilla’s current husband has had his share of pedophile / sex abuser friends.
Maybe?
However, I think the big difference is, by all accounts, Charles doesn’t spend inordinate amounts of time insulting Camilla to her face or trying to make her feel an outsider within the family.
So the key to my theory isn’t so much that Andrew is pedo-adjacent (or even a pedo in his own right), but more that his behavior toward Camilla is likely insulting and antagonistic. And that Camilla, who has family of her own, who has a seemingly strong marriage, works steadily (such that royal work is), and seems to have a strong sense of who she is, doesn’t feel at this stage of her life, where she’s an established senior royal, married to the soon-to-be king, basically accepted by society despite her rocky start within the royal sphere, that she has to put up with constant barbs from her brother-in-law. She may be fond of the York girls but they aren’t immediate family, and she’s probably not especially close to them, seeing them only at major royal events and family gatherings.
There’s no maybe to it, Charles was very close to entertainer Jimmy Savile and Anglican bishop Peter Ball. They are not the only two but the allegations against Savile and Ball are the strongest and Ball served prison time.
So Charles gets a pass for being FOP (Friend of Pedophile) and Andrew does not because Andrew spends “inordinate amounts of time insulting Camilla to her face” and tries to make “her feel an outsider within the family.”
I can believe that Camilla and Andrew are not BFFs but I find it hard to believe that Andrew would use his daughter’s wedding as an opportunity to mean-girl Camilla.
It sounds possible to me. She definitely could have rearranged her schedule if she’d really wanted to; they’re in Scotland, where she has a home!
I can’t imagine it’s super shady. I mean – it’s the royals so it’s possible. But unless something big happened recently family drama wise, I can’t imagine she’d just skip out. The girls aren’t their parents.
That said – I had an “aunt” who I now refer to as an ex-aunt refuse to go to our wedding because despite us attempting to hand deliver her invitation multiple times and her never being around she felt insulted that my uncles wife (who he’d been married to well before I was born) got an invitation before she did (only because she was home at the time). Families get crazy during weddings, it’s ridiculous.
Oh man that’s the truth. So many people manage to make a wedding all about them and their drama. The logistics we had to manage to keep my MIL from seeing my FIL’s new (now ex) wife at our wedding were insane.
This is the way I take it. Charles does not play well with others. One reason his relationship with Camilla has been so long lasting is because she has Always been his mother subsitute. She has always not only been someone he could endlessly complain to, whine to, and expect to get his way. Camilla is again following a 72 year old POW’s insecure demands that she must follow lock step with him. That’s the way she got him, and that’s the way she manages him.
tea was served
Charles is attending the wedding, though. She’s not following his lead on this at all.
Maybe she’s snubbing for him, like an early Xmas present. It could be front page news if Charles didn’t attend but Camilla can much more easily get away with it and keep Charles clean in the process.
Shady and rude. Whatever the issue is, it needs to be put aside for one day for Eugenie’s sake.
I think its kind of a snub but not really the end of the world. If Camilla really wanted to attend, she could make it work. She probably thought “ehhh…I’ll just stick to my schedule.” I don’t think she made up the events to miss the wedding but I don’t think she is going to go out of her way for the wedding either. Maybe she doesn’t like Eugenie, maybe she doesn’t like Andrew, maybe she just wants to stay in Scotland and avoid any drama, who knows.
This is my line of thinking as well.
Also Camilla’s health does not seem to be that great, so in addition to cancelling events the day of, she may have had to cancel engagements on the before or after as well.
Hasn’t Camilla been travelling alone a lot this year? Maybe she and Charles don’t want to spend time together lately. A wedding is a terrible place to be with a spouse when you are unhappy.
They looked perfectly happy together at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and they’ve been on vacation in Scotland together for what, the past two months?
None story.
I really can’t imagine Camilla wanting to miss a wedding as boozy as this one is going to be.
LOLOL
@ Tina : Perhaps Camilla heard it was going to be a CASH bar! 😂😂
Ha, ha: funniest take on the situation!
Camilla is one of the few royals I actually like so whether it’s an excuse or not, more power to her for sticking with her local pre-arranged obligations which, have to say, sound way more fun than this ridiculous circus of a wedding.
She’d be attacked either way, if she cancelled or if she attended the wedding. Better to stick with the pre-arranged day of work events.
If they had to fit the wedding in in October, either Harry and Meghan risked missing it because of Invictus or some other royal was going to have a scheduling conflict. All things considered, Camilla being the one to miss it looks better.
Why would she be attacked FOR attending the wedding? That doesn’t make sense. Esp. for just a school visit that could’ve easily been rescheduled back in January when this date was announced.
But the Harvest Festival she’s also attending cannot. Many would have understood her cancelling to attend the wedding, but she would have been criticized for it.
+1
Agree this is a non-story. Of the two, only Charles counts. No one will miss Camilla.
This is a royal wedding in the immediate family. If she wanted to be there she’d be there, so something must have happened.
Well, no, the immediate family is Charles, Camilla, William and Harry. She was there with bells on and looked absolutely delighted at both William’s and Harry’s weddings. Missing her step-niece’s wedding really isn’t a big deal.
One of the best set of photos from H+M’s wedding is Charles walking Camilla and Doria down the stairs. Everyone looks so happy.
sorry to be pedantic, but how is she a step-niece? isn’t she just a niece or a niece-in-law?
I agree: none story here.
A lot of reaching here in the comments. She won’t be the first, and she certainly will not be the last royal to miss out on another royal’s wedding.
But people will look for anything to try and take her down.
Sorry to be pedantic, but Eug is her step-niece, she’s just her niece or niece-in-law.
hmm…this got posted to the wrong section. sorry.
Perhaps it’s not a snub by her, perhaps she was not invited and it’s a snub ON her. I could see where Fergie, who was so close to Princess Diana early on, would still harbor extreme bad feelings toward the woman that caused Di so much grief, and would not want her presence at her own daughter’s wedding.
If Camilla hadn’t been invited, Charles wouldn’t be attending.
Doubt this. Fergie is SO HAPPY to be included with TRF (even though, as mother of the bride, they couldn’t really *ex*clude her), but I don’t think she’d want to rock that particular boat.
Sarah Ferguson is on record stating that Camilla was a great friend of her mother and that Sarah loves Camilla to bits.
Couple of months away in the highlands. Maybe she had a little work done, has not fully recovered and is not quite ready for her closeup. Just speculating, like everyone else.
She’ll be getting closeups during the day of engagements she is doing instead of going to the wedding.
I remember when the engagement was announced, Andrew made some comment about having to work around all the diaries – he sounded miffed. I think he was probably annoyed that so many other engagement were taking precedent (Queen’s summer vacay at Balmoral, with a short window before Invictus), and ultimately there was no empty date, so they picked a date with the least problematic overlap – Camilla.
oh this makes sense, especially because December fills up fast for the royal family, Charles is likely having several birthday celebrations in November, etc.
Most of their diaries are planned 9-12 months in advance. As Becks1 writes, there are at least three events planned for Charles’s birthday, plus Invictus Games. They had to work around schedules and they certainly weren’t going to have Harry and Meghan miss this. As it is, H+M are probably leaving Saturday/Sunday to get to Australia on the 15th to start their tour.
Her pre-scheduled events could easily have been rearranged. Plus, you know the family knew about the wedding date before the public. Shade!!
A Harvest Festival cannot be rearranged. A school visit yes, but not an entire festival.
The moment Eugenie set the date…all of the Royal’s staff pulled out their calendars to see what needed to be rescheduled…
That’s how it’s done…period. point. blank.
The fact that Camilla did NOT change her schedule back in January….let’s you know EXACTLY what she thinks of Andrew and Fergie…oh…and let’s be honest…of Eugenie also…
The shade is so thick…it makes the very EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE…DARK AS INK!
They would have looked at all of the calendars first, found the dates with the least number of conflicts, and picked one of those days for the wedding. It wasn’t going to be in August or September because of the Balmoral holiday. It had to be before Harry and Meghan left for Invictus in Australia. That left the first two weekends in October to choose from, unless Eugenie and Jack wanted to get married in July.
I agree with the poster who said since Charles can’t snub the event, Camila is basically doing it for him with his blessing.
William blew off his cousins wedding and there was no shade in that, perhaps this is a similar circumstance. I wouldn’t read anything into it. I am also doubtful that the rift between Andrew and Charles is as wide as we might think.
There was plenty of shade in it, if you’re writing about the wedding of Peter Phillips. Left his girlfriend to meet the Queen alone while he jetted off to the Craig family wedding.
I like that Camilla is attending her school meeting. I feel it shows clearly how important education is to her. It’s great. And she will probably be involved in other aspects of the wedding, even if we don’t get to see.
I love a good conspiracy so I’m going to guess that Chaz and Milla are having issues. He’s been showing up solo at stuff. Something’s rotten in Clarence House. You can’t tell me that Camilla can’t snap her fingers and get a walk about or ribbon-cutting rescheduled. What the what, indeed. 🤨
They’ve been in Scotland together for the past two months. And no, an entire Harvest Festival cannot be rearranged.
This seems to be the least likely theory. Chaz and Milla are fine.
It seems a bit strange to me. I’m sure the school would have understood if Camilla had to reschedule due to her niece’s wedding. She may have missed their harvest festival event but could have gone back for another event.
I get the impression that Camilla is struggling a bit health-wise just now. She just doesn’t seem as robust as in previous years.
Going back for another event isn’t the same as attending a community’s annual local harvest festival. These are the bread and butter events that matter.
Her health has never been great, but I haven’t heard of any new issues recently.