A Quiet Decision That Says a Lot”: Queen Camilla’s Son Reveals Why He and His Sister Are Skipping Christmas with the Royal Family This Year — and the Real Reason Has Surprised Many

Queen Camilla‘s son Tom Parker Bowles and his sister, Laura Lopes, won’t be celebrating Christmas with the royals this year.

On Dec. 5, Richard Eden of the Daily Mail reported that Tom, 50, told him that he and Laura, 47,  won’t be ringing in the holiday with their mother, King Charles and other members of the royal family at Sandringham.

“I’m not [spending Christmas at Sandringham]. Nor is my sister. It’ll be every other year, one year on, one year off,” Tom told the outlet.

As for his holiday plans this year, the food writer said he will be sleeping in the London living room of his ex-wife, Sara Buys, with whom he shares children, Lola, 18, and Freddy, 15.

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“It’s back to the sofa at my ex-wife’s,” Tom said about where he’ll be instead.

Tom and Laura are Queen Camilla’s children with her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, and King Charles is Tom’s godfather. Charles and Camilla were romantically linked before they married other people (Charles was wed to Princess Diana), remained friends and later rekindled their romance, marrying in 2005.

Last year, the author of multiple cookbooks, including Cooking and the Crown, told The Telegraph that his mother insisted he attend the royal Christmas gathering, sharing that he planned to celebrate Christmas with the royals at Sandringham for the first time.

“My mum said, ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time,'” Tom said in December 2024.

“I genuinely know nothing about it,” he added about the protocol around the royal holiday. “But I know there’s turkey and sprouts and church. And I have to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.”

Tom also mentioned that the invitation to attend the royal family’s Christmas had always been there, but that his mother was especially keen for him to accept then.

“It has been a hell of a two years for them,” Tom told The Telegraph, referencing the King’s cancer diagnosis and treatment and the Queen’s bout with pneumonia.

“The older you get, the more conscious you become of mortality, especially with illnesses and the rest of it,” he said.

Exclusively speaking to PEOPLE in 2024, Tom opened up about how the Queen often joins her children and ex-husband Andrew for a post-holiday gathering at Christmas.

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“My mother and father are still great friends, and we will go down on December 27 and my mother will sometimes come,” Tom told PEOPLE. “It is something to work towards. It’s a maturity that is a great thing if — despite a marriage sometimes not working – you can keep it together for the sake of the children and the sake of each other, then it’s a very good thing.”