How Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are Spending Christmas 2025—and Why They Aren’t With the Royals

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THE RUNDOWNMeghan Markle and Prince Harry weren’t with the royal family on Christmas morning.A source opened up about their plans ahead of the holidays.Meghan recently shared more of her Christmas traditions on Netflix.The royal family, including Kate Middleton and Prince William, attended church service this morning at Sandringham. They did their traditional walk where they were photographed on the way in—and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry weren’t with them.HENRY NICHOLLS//Getty ImagesKate Middleton and Prince William with their children this morning’s service.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex last spent Christmas with the royal family in 2018; last year, People reported that King Charles III hadn’t invited them to join the royal festivities. Harry met with his father in September in a sign the strained relationship between the two may be thawing.Stephen Pond//Getty ImagesMeghan Markle and Prince Harry at service in 2018.On December 17, Hello! reported that Harry, Meghan, and their two children, 6-year-old Archie and 4-year-old Lilibet, planned to spend Christmas at their home in Montecito, California.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to California in 2020 after stepping back from their roles as senior working members of the royal family.They have kept much of their American life private since then, though Meghan shared a little about the family’s holiday traditions in her Netflix special, With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration, released on December 3.She spoke about how they enjoy opening British Christmas crackers and revealed she cooks a Christmas Eve gumbo made from a recipe created by her mother, Doria Ragland.Harry tastes a bit in the episode, then jokes, “I can feel it puncturing through the top of my head right now. It’s delicious—I’m not so sure it’s as good as your mom’s, but it’s certainly close.”Meghan also makes the kids personalized advent calendars with notes about how proud she is of them, reading, “I love you because you are so kind,” and “I love you because you’re so brave.”“Hopefully, we’ll have these for quite a long time,” she explained. “A tradition has to have a beginning.”In the trailer for the show, Meghan shared, “I love the holiday season. It’s about finding time to connect with the people we love, embracing traditions and making new ones.”View full post on InstagramOn Friday, the family shared a new Christmas photo featuring the kids standing in the woods on a wooden footbridge.View full post on Instagram“Happy Holidays! From our family to yours,” Meghan wrote in the caption.