Why Kate Middleton Turned Down Royal Christmas Invitation in 2006

justjared.com:

With Christmas around the corner, you may not realize that Queen Elizabeth broke royal protocol back in 2006 when she invited Kate Middleton to join the royal family for their annual Christmas lunch at Sandringham.

Only engaged couples and wives of royals had been invited to the annual event in the past, but the Queen made an exception for the future Princess of Wales back when she was dating Prince William.

They eventually married in 2011. Keep reading to find out more… In the 2020 book “Battle of Brothers: William and Harry — The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult,” royal biographer Robert Lacey wrote (via Daily Mail) “By 2006, the couple had been dating seriously for the best part of five years.

Yet when William invited Kate to join him that year at Sandringham for the royal family’s traditional Christmas lunch, she refused.” He continued, “It was the first time the Queen had extended such an invitation to an unregistered ‘girlfriend,’ but Kate had her own take on that break with tradition: she would go to Sandringham on Christmas Day only when she was engaged and had a ring to prove it.” He wrote, “The strong-willed ‘no’ from Kate showed she was willing to abide by tradition and wait until the time was right.