Boris bursts Middletons’ bubble of ten
IT WAS supposed to be a very Merry Middleton Christmas in a bubble of ten.
As the brains behind Party Pieces, it’s little surprise that Carole Middleton likes to play hostess every Christmas, decorating her Berkshire manor house with baubles and ribbons, baking mince pies and keeping the mulled wine flowing.
But last night, as for so many families across the country, Christmas had to be cancelled.
The original plan had been for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with children George, Charlotte and Louis, to travel to the Middletons’ Grade II listed home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, for the festivities.
The Cambridges had spent the week at Anmer Hall in Norfolk, after decamping from Kensington Palace last weekend. Fortuitously or not, they were among Londoners with second homes in the country who left the capital before tier 4 restrictions were announced.
Kate’s sister Pippa, her husband James and their son Arthur were also due to join the family in Bucklebury for Christmas. Then Berkshire and London were plunged into tier 3, so Kate offered to host at Anmer Hall. But after the announcement last night that Berkshire was moving into tier 4 with a ban on travel and household mixing, the Middletons called off their plans.
It will be a bitter blow to Mike, 71, and Carole, 65, who had been planning their first Christmas Day with all four of their grandchildren: George, seven, Charlotte, five, and two-year-olds Louis and Arthur.
As queen of the kitchen, Carole let it be known in an interview two years ago that she normally wears a ‘big pinny’ and her Christmas essentials are ‘mince pies, mulled wine and mistletoe’. She was also planning a champagne and smokedsalmon affair with a family meal for the big day based on a Mary Berry recipe, including a vegan option.
Now, the Cambridges will celebrate alone as a family of five.
The Queen has decided to spend this festive season ‘very quietly’ with the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will be at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire forming a bubble with Camilla’s two children and five grandchildren.
The Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, will remain protected at Windsor by ‘ HMS Bubble’ – a small number of staff who have isolated from their own families. Special provision has been made to allow the Queen to attend church. There will be a tiny service, with masks, in her private chapel at the castle.
It will then be turkey for two for lunch with perhaps a video call to Prince Harry and Meghan in California. The Sussexes will be with son Archie, 19 months, and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland.
Sophie, Countess of Wessex, had been due to spend Christmas Day with her father Christopher Rhys Jones, 89, for the first time in 21 years, but as her Surrey home Bagshot Park is now in tier 4, that looks unlikely. Sarah, Duchess of York, had planned to spend Christmas with daughters Beatrice and Eugenie for the first time since her divorce in 1996.