Prince William and Kate Middleton did not attend the Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace this year. The reason for this could be an event from 2006.
Namely, back in 2006, William and Kate were in a serious relationship, and the late Queen Elizabeth made an unprecedented move and invited the prince’s girlfriend to Christmas lunch for the first time.
This act caused a great surprise because the previous custom was that only married couples were invited to such events. However, the public was even more surprised by the fact that Kate declined the queen’s invitation.
William and Kate met while still at university, and by 2006 they had been in a serious relationship for five years. In his biography Battle Of Brothers, historian Robert Lacey wrote: “By 2006, the couple had been in a serious relationship for the better part of five years.
However, when William invited Kate to join him at Sandringham that year for the traditional royal family Christmas lunch, she refused. It was the first time the Queen had extended such an invitation to a non-registered girl, but Kate had her own take on the break with tradition: she would only go to Sandringham on Christmas Day if she was engaged and wore a ring to prove it.”
Kate’s self-willed ‘no’ showed that she was willing to respect tradition and wait until the time was right. She was not ready to overstep tradition.