Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey this year could "enrage" Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as it seeks to showcase the importance of building "supportive, nurturing worlds around children and the adults in their lives," according to a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast.
Kate will host the third "Together at Christmas" carol service on December 8, which will include performances and readings from famous faces such as actor Adam Lambert and musician Jacob Collier. The service will be filmed and broadcast in Britain on Christmas Eve.
It is presented as an opportunity to thank members of the public around Britain who are invited to the service for performing good deeds in their communities. This year the event is thematically tied to the princess' work with early years and childhood development.
A press release from the Kensington Palace about the service stated that it will "showcase the hope of new life and why it is so important to build supportive, nurturing worlds around children and the adults in their lives."
This, chief royal correspondent Jack Royston told Royal Report listeners, comes into contrast with a complaint made by Meghan against the royal family themselves.
"That is exactly the kind of statement that is guaranteed to enrage Harry and Meghan because their whole case is that Meghan was not supported by the royals during the months when she was pregnant," Royston said.
"Her lawyers actually said in a court filing that she was left unprotected while pregnant, and Harry and Meghan say she was one of the most trolled people in the world in 2019, which is the year Archie was born."
"She also told Oprah in March 2021 that she experienced suicidal thoughts in January 2019 while she was pregnant with Archie," he added, "and that was when they were kind of asking the palace and asking family members to do more to support her."
In the years since they split from the monarchy and moved to the U.S. in 2020, both Meghan and Harry have raised issues with the way the duchess was treated by not only members of the royal institution, but also the royal family themselves.
In the couple's 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry claimed that members of his family dismissed Meghan's negative treatment by the press as something they had all gone through themselves.
"As far as a lot of the family were concerned everything she was being put through, they had been put through as well, so it was almost like a rite of passage," he said.
"Some of the members of the family were like: 'My wife had to go through that so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently.'"
Buckingham Palace has not responded to the claims made by Harry and Meghan in their Netflix show.
Kate's Christmas service is expected to be attended by senior members of the royal family, as in previous years, though it is unlikely that King Charles III will be in attendance as he has an event scheduled at his country home, Highgrove, in Gloucestershire.
In 2022, the king and Queen Camilla were guests of honor at the service, which paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In past years it has also been attended by Kate and Prince William's two eldest children, Prince George (10) and Princess Charlotte (8).
