As we talk about all of the royal gossip of the past four days, it’s important to remember that the semi-official word from Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace is that the Windsors are barely even discussing the Reverse Sussexit and they’re certainly not in the middle of a “Balmoral Summit.” Royal sources said all of that with a straight face to the Telegraph, then the palace-led briefings about Prince Harry and Meghan continued without blinking an eye. One of the big stories, hilariously placed in the Telegraph just hours after the “we’re not even talking about them” piece, is that the Sussex family might not get invitations to Sandringham for Christmas. Keep in mind, the left-behinds have been in such dire need of Christmas reinforcements that Queen Camilla’s adult kids have been invited. The York princesses are also welcome, despite being non-working royals. Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall are regulars, and they always bring their kids. But no guarantees for the Sussexes!

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are not guaranteed an invitation to Royal family gatherings including Christmas at Sandringham, The Telegraph can reveal. The Sussexes and their children, Prince Archie, aged seven, and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, will not be automatically included in outings for non-working members of the family despite moving back to Britain.

Each event, including the annual holiday in Balmoral and Christmas at Sandringham, is subject to a personal invitation from the King for all members of the family. The Sussexes are not expected to join the Balmoral holiday this year owing to the logistics of their move, although it has not been ruled out. As revealed by the Telegraph, they are expected to land in the UK before the end of August, ready for the children to start at their new British prep school in September.

The King has previously emphasised that Prince Harry, Meghan and their children will always be members of the family. As news of their plan to return broke, palace sources indicated that the King was looking forward to seeing more of his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in a “private and personal capacity”.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to maintain their “no half-in, half-out” status as non-working royals, described by palace sources as the terms that they “signed up to” under Elizabeth II. The King and Prince William are said to agree on upholding the late Queen’s wishes.

There has been speculation that the Sussexes will be seen and photographed alongside the King and the wider Royal family in the coming months. Such images would be considered a major milestone for the Duke and Duchess, placing them back at the heart of the monarchy in the public imagination.

Prince Harry hopes that the King will open the Invictus Games next year in a show of support for his work and for military veterans. There are concerns among critics of the Sussexes that such images would allow the Duke and Duchess to capitalise further on their links to the monarchy in their commercial ventures.

One source said it was “way too early” to confirm when and whether the Sussexes would be included in any public family events once they were based in Britain. They will not attend official ones. The King, sources have said, will ensure that the work of the monarchy does not change, reassuring working members of the family that their work is valued and the “no half-in, half-out” convention remains in place.

[From The Telegraph]

“There are concerns among critics of the Sussexes that such images would allow the Duke and Duchess to capitalise further on their links to the monarchy in their commercial ventures.” Again, Zara and Mike always attend Christmas at Sandringham and their whole thing is profiting from their royal-adjacency. King Charles and Camilla even allowed Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson to attend AFTER Andrew settled with Virginia Giuffre. Samuel Chatto is welcome at Christmas too and he’s not a working royal. Eugenie, Jack, Beatrice and Edo have all been welcomed at Sandringham and they all have private jobs.

It just occurred to me that these people are going to milk another Christmas-related storyline: will the Sussexes be invited to Princess Kate’s Together at Christmas piano recital?? In recent years, Kate’s Christmas carol event is so poorly attended among the family, she also invites non-working royals to beef up the numbers. I predict that the tabloids will easily write three thousand stories about “Keen Linchpin Kate refuses to play peacemaker over her sacred working-royal piano recital” and “Kate will only invite Harry, but his wife is not welcome.” And don’t forget “Meghan made Kate cry over Kate’s piano recital.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Instar.