Her Majesty's Christmas Horribilis

HER TRADITIONAL FESTIVITIES ARE MARRED BY A FRACTURED FAMILY

- Andrew Mackintosh

Christmas is normally a time for families to come together with good cheer and to reflect on the achievements of the past year.

But it seems the Queen will be deprived of all these things this year − her family will not all be with her at Sandringham and as the scandal of Prince Andrew and the paedophile rages on her look back over 2019 is likely to be less than joyous.

In short, it looks like being something of a Christmas horribilis for the 93-year-old.

A royal insider says, “It’s been a tough year for Her Majesty, not that anyone would guess it from the expression on her face. She’s always been a believer in ‘eyes and teeth’ when things are difficult, so expect plenty of smiles and waves on the traditional royal family walk to church on Christmas Day.”

The Queen’s original annus horribilis, as she put it in 1992, saw Andrew separate from Sarah, Duchess of York, Princess Anne divorce Mark Phillips, Diana, Princess of Wales reveal that “there were three people” in her marriage to Prince Charles (they separated soon afterwards) and much of Windsor Castle burn down.

At the time, the Queen said she did not look back on that year with “undiluted pleasure”.

She may well think the same now given the way 2019 started − with Prince Philip’s car crash. After that, a widening distance between princes Harry and William was revealed in an interview – “We’re certainly on different paths at the moment,” said Harry (35).

Then the Queen was dragged into a constitutional crisis over Brexit after British prime minister, Boris Johnson (55), asked her to suspend UK parliament. She duly obliged but then Britain’s Supreme Court deemed the move unlawful.