The Royal Family, including King Charles and the Princess of Wales, gathered together for one of the biggest events in the royal calendar – the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey
The Royal Family have been out in force for the annual Commonwealth Day service – but two major members of the family were missing. Joining King Charles for the colourful event at Westminster Abbey were Queen Camilla, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The annual service is a celebration of the 56 nations that make up the Commonwealth with fellow working royals Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also at the lively ceremony. However, two hard-working royals, both considered safe pairs of hands, were missing from the event – the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
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It is the second year in a row that Prince Edward and his wife Sophie have not been at the annual event. And it seems the reason for their absence is that they have been in Italy at the Milan and Cortina Winter Paralympics to support Paralympics GB.
Last year, the pair weren’t there as Sophie carried out a string of engagements in New York City to mark International Women’s Day, while Commonwealth Day fell on Edward’s 61st birthday last year.
Others not at Westminster Abbey this year were Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. The two sisters are dealing with the fallout of revelations about their parents, the former Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson, and their association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It has been suggested that Beatrice and Eugenie should not make any public appearances with their royal relatives while the scandal continues to rage on. But it seems this is not the reason for their no-show at Westminster Abbey this afternoon. It’s because neither princess has attended a Commonwealth Day service in the past – with the event restricted to working royals only.
However, those at the service today with the royals joining the 1,800-strong congregation were Prime Minister Keir Starmer and senior members of his Cabinet, as well as High Commissioners and young people.
Spice Girl Geri Halliwell-Horner, an ambassador for the Royal Commonwealth Society, which stages the event, gave an address and there was a reflection from former Strictly Come Dancing pro Oti Mabuse and a poem from Selina Tusitala Marsh, the inaugural Commonwealth Poet Laureate.
Charles said in his address to the Commonwealth: “In a world that can feel increasingly fragmented, this voluntary union of free association remains rare and precious – a forum for open and honest discussion and debate to help improve the lives of the nearly three billion people who call our member states home.”
He added: “Our Commonwealth of Nations holds untapped potential for prosperous trade between trusting partners. With nearly two-thirds of our population under the age of 30, we are a family defined by youth and possibility.
“It is our shared responsibility to ensure that they inherit not only hope and ambition, but also a world in which they can flourish. That inheritance depends upon the health of our planet and on the restoration of the natural world on which we depend. Across so many parts of our Commonwealth, climate change is not an abstract or distant threat, but a lived reality.
“The stewardship of nature, the protection of oceans and forests, and the pursuit of prosperity secured in harmony with the natural world are duties we owe not only to one another, but to generations yet unborn.”