The royal family will be hoping for a fresh start in 2025 after the trials and tribulations of the past year. The Princess of Wales is expected to continue her gradual return to public duties with more appearances, with the Prince of Wales suggesting they could carry out an overseas tour together.
“I think hopefully Catherine will be doing a bit more next year, so we’ll have some more trips maybe lined up,” William said during his recent visit to Cape Town. Kate has not taken part in an official foreign visit for more than 14 months.
The couple attended the Rugby World Cup in France in October 2023, and the Crown Prince of Jordan’s wedding in June 2023, and travelled to Boston in the US for the Earthshot Awards in December 2022. But before that, their last major overseas trip was a platinum jubilee tour to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, which was described as misjudged, in March 2022, nearly two years ago.
The princess turns 43 on January 9, with the Waleses likely to celebrate the occasion, as they try to put a “brutal” 2024, when the King, as well as Kate, was diagnosed with cancer, behind them. January 16 marks a year since Kate was admitted to hospital for abdominal surgery just a week after her 42nd birthday.
She spent nearly two weeks in the London Clinic after undergoing her operation, and was recuperating at home when she discovered she had cancer and had to begin chemotherapy. William has set out his hopes for his future role in the monarchy, saying he was trying to do things “differently” and wanted to be a prince for his “generation”, carrying out his duties with a “smaller r in the royal”.
Charles is also looking ahead, and a senior Buckingham Palace official said he will return to regular overseas trips in 2025 as he adapts to living with cancer. The King, who is still undergoing treatment, will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official foreign royal trips, provided doctors sanction the travel.
The development emerged at the end of the King’s recent tour of Australia and Samoa with the Queen, which was described as the “perfect tonic” for him. The palace official added: “We’re now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour programme for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms.”
His treatment is said to be moving in a positive direction and, as a managed condition, his cycle of outpatient appointments will continue into 2025. Among the expected trips is a poignant visit to Auschwitz in Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp on January 27.
Charles, who is patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, commissioned portraits, unveiled in 2022, of some of the nation’s last remaining Holocaust survivors as a reminder of the horrors of the Nazi regime. Camilla travelled to Poland for the 75th anniversary in 2020.
The King and Queen could also carry out a tour to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Mirror reported that plans are being drafted. Other commemorations the King and royal family will be involved in include the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on May 8 and VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) on August 15.
VE Day celebrates the day Britain and its Allies formally accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender during the Second World War. Beacons and lamp lights of peace will be lit in the evening, reminiscent of celebrations that took place across the country in 1945.
Five years ago, on the 75th anniversary of VE Day in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the late Queen delivered a televised address to the nation during lockdown, saying: “Never give up, never despair – that was the message of VE Day.” March 23 marks five years since then-prime minister Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown in the UK, ordering people to “stay at home” as the Covid virus spread.
Charles will be expected to send a message to US president-elect Donald Trump ahead of his January 20 inauguration, and Mr Trump could receive an invitation to visit the King in the UK in the wake of his political comeback. Traditional royal highlights in the year ahead range from Trooping the Colour and incoming state visits, to the Order of the Garter procession and Royal Ascot.
The Duke of Sussex, meanwhile is facing a possible four days of extensive questioning in the witness box in his High Court trial against the publisher of The Sun. In the seven-week trial, to begin in January, Harry and former Labour deputy leader Lord Tom Watson will bring legal action against News Group Newspapers (NGN) over allegations of unlawful information gathering, which NGN denies.
The trial is expected to run into February, when the duke is due to head to Canada, possibly with the Duchess of Sussex, for his Invictus Games sporting competition in Vancouver and Whistler, which is being held from February 8 to 15.
There is some happy news for the royal family. Princess Beatrice is expecting her second baby, a brother or sister for daughter Sienna, in the spring. The new arrival will bring joy to the Duke of York after the controversy surrounding his links to an alleged Chinese spy.
The King and Queen celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9 – the day the then-Prince of Wales married the former Camilla Parker Bowles in Windsor in 2005. Charles is known to have been buoyed by Camilla’s support during his health challenges, and takes great strength from the way she “keeps it real”, a palace official said.
Milestone birthdays coming up include the Duchess of Edinburgh’s 60th in January and Princess Michael of Kent, who turns 80 the same month. Princess Charlotte is 10 in May, and the Princess Royal’s husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, is 70 in March.
The Earl of Wessex, Sophie and the Duke of Edinburgh’s son – Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest grandchild – becomes the latest of the younger generation of royals to reach adulthood when he turns 18 in December.