Kate Middleton and Prince William Spent Easter with Her Parents Instead of Royals

Kate Middleton and Prince William spent Easter with her side of the family.

While King Charles, Queen Camilla and other members of the royal family stepped out for the Easter Matins Service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on April 20, the Prince and Princess of Wales skipped the royal family’s holiday gathering. Instead, they spent the weekend with their three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — over 100 miles away in Norfolk, where they have a country home.

William, Kate and their kids attended church with her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, on Easter Sunday, according to Hello! magazine. The family reportedly attended the 11 a.m. service at St. Mary Magdalene Church in the village of Sandringham, where the royals traditionally gather each year for Christmas. The outlet added that the vicar, Canon Paul Williams, gave the group hot cross buns as they left through a back entrance.

The Prince of Wales, 42, and Princess of Wales, 43, revealed ahead of the weekend that they would not attend the royal family’s church outing for Easter, and this isn’t the first time that the couple opted to spend a holiday with Kate’s family. For Christmas 2016, William and Kate skipped the royal family’s gathering and spent the holiday attending a church service near her childhood home in Bucklebury with her parents and siblings. Prince George, now 11, and Princess Charlotte, now 9, joined the festivities, sucking candy canes as they exited the mass. (Prince Louis was born in 2018 and made his Christmas debut in 2022.)

Prince William is known to have a good relationship with the Middletons, including grabbing a drink with Carole at a local pub in April 2024 amid Kate’s cancer treatment. (In January, the Princess of Wales announced her cancer was in remission.)

The Middletons live a short car ride away from the Prince and Princess of Wales’ primary home in Windsor and are a constant presence in their grandchildren’s lives, often hosting George, Charlotte and Louis for sleepovers.

“Her parents are an enduring factor in the upbringing of their grandchildren,” a palace insider told PEOPLE last year.

Although Kate and William have joined the royal family’s Easter church outing in recent years, they skipped last year’s outing amid Princess Kate’s cancer news, which was publicly announced just weeks before.

They last attended Easter with the royal family in 2023, when Prince Louis joined for the first time. Prince George and Princess Charlotte made their royal Easter debut the previous year together.

Prince William has attended church for Easter at St. George’s Chapel with the royal family since he was a child. However, Kate has only attended the staple on the royal calendar five times: in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. (The royals didn’t publicly gather for Easter in 2020 and 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.)

In 2014, William and Kate spent the holiday abroad during a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand. They attended an Easter Sunday church service at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

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Although the Prince and Princess of Wales were missing from Sunday’s Easter gathering, King Charles and Queen Camilla led a contingent of royals at the event. All three of the monarch’s siblings attended: Princess Anne with her husband Sir Timothy Laurence, Prince Andrew with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and Prince Edward with his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.

The two children of Princess Margaret, the Earl of Snowdon and Lady Sarah, joined the gathering along with Sarah’s husband, David Chatto.

Representing the next generation of the royal family were Prince Andrew’s two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who both attended with their husbands. Prince Edward’s son, James, Earl of Wessex, also joined, walking into the church service with his parents.