Headlines pertaining to the House of Windsor came so thick and fast in 2024 (recall the largely unhinged speculation around the Princess of Wales’s whereabouts in March)
that it’s easy to forget the royals themselves laid relatively low for much of last year on both sides of the Atlantic.
Twenty-twenty-five, however, will see the senior royals out and about considerably more frequently,
while the Sussexes – particularly Meghan – are gearing up for several high-profile launches. Here, a look at what lies ahead.
The Princess of Wales embraces a “new normal”
After Christmas at Sandringham, the Princess of Wales kickstarted 2025 with the news that she’s both cancer free and, together with the Prince of Wales, now serving as joint patron of The Royal Marsden Hospital, where she received treatment. “It is a relief to now be in remission, and I remain focused on recovery,” she wrote in a Kensington Palace update. “As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know, it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead. There is much to look forward to.”
According to The Times, that will include Kate issuing her own royal warrants for the first time, which would make her the first Princess of Wales to do so since Queen Mary in 1910. (It’s at the reigning monarch’s discretion which members of the royal family are allowed to give specific brands their seal of approval, a privilege that Diana, Princess of Wales was never accorded under the late Queen Elizabeth II.)
All being well, Kate is expected to feature at all of the tentpole events in the royal calendar throughout 2025: Commonwealth Day, Trooping the Colour, Royal Ascot, The Festival of Remembrance… Yet, it’s believed she will still be making fewer public appearances than she did pre-2024 while she focuses on her recovery and spending time with her family.
The Duchess of Sussex enters her Daylesford phase
Twenty-twenty-five will see the Duchess of Sussex move into the lifestyle space in earnest following the jam-soft launch of American Riviera Orchard in 2024. The release of her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, has been postponed from 15 January to 4 March given the ongoing wildfires in the Duchess’s native LA, but is pitched by the streamer as “reimagin[ing] the genre of lifestyle programming” with guests ranging from Suits alumni to Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters. It’s assumed its debut will be followed by a wider roll out of ARO products than the preserves we’ve seen crop up on various timelines so far. (By the time With Love actually launches, it will have been almost exactly a year since Meghan’s American Riviera Orchard Instagram debuted with a clip of the Duchess set to Nancy Wilson’s “I Wish You Love” and a cream linen calligraphy logo – meaning expectations are naturally high.)
Although the trademark application for ARO has been pored over ad nauseam since March 2024 (“sesame-based spread”), truthfully, no one knows exactly what form the brand will take – or how closely Meghan will align herself with what she rolls out. That being said, her decision to return to Instagram on New Year’s Day – and her subsequent emotional tribute to her beagle, Guy – does seem to indicate that we’re due for some The Tig-style revelations-stroke-recommendations from the Duchess.
Also of note: the coming of Archetypes 2.0 – and a potential spin-off. After parting ways with Spotify, Meghan signed with Lemonada Media in February 2024, claiming she would both be rereleasing Archetypes as well as launching “a dynamic new podcast”, the exact focus of which is yet to be revealed.
Prince George levels up
This year sees Prince George turn 12, Princess Charlotte hit double digits, and Prince Louis turn seven. For George, that means graduating from Lambrook, his primary school near the Wales family home of Adelaide Cottage in Berkshire, and heading to senior school at an institution yet to be revealed. Eton, which William attended, is a contender (not least because of its proximity to Windsor) – as is Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Kate’s alma mater. While Eton exclusively admits male pupils, Marlborough is co-ed, which would mean that both Charlotte and Louis would be able to join George there when the time comes.
The King and Queen celebrate a milestone anniversary
Twenty-twenty-five will be a significant year for the King. The monarch plans to travel as much as possible given his ongoing cancer treatment, with a trip to Poland for the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation already confirmed for January. It’s reported that Charles will also pay a visit to Italy with the Queen in the months ahead – meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican as Rome celebrates its Jubilee – and decamp to Brazil for COP30 in Belém come November, although both tours have yet to be formally confirmed. The King will be marking four significant anniversaries on home shores in 2024, too: 35 years of The King’s Foundation, originally the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture; 80 years since Victory in Europe Day on 8 May; 50 years of The King’s Trust, formerly the Prince’s Trust; and his 20th wedding anniversary with Camilla on 9 April.
The Prince of Wales is a royal with “a smaller R”
Between the General Election and his father and wife being diagnosed with cancer back to back, many of the Prince of Wales’s plans for modernising the House of Windsor’s MO were put on the backburner in 2024 – a year he described as “the hardest of his life” while in Cape Town for The Earthshot Prize back in November. It’s also in South Africa that he let the assembled press in on his plans to do his job with “a smaller R in the Royal” moving forward. In practice, that means more charitable projects along the lines of Homewards (which isn’t without its critics) and less pomp and circumstance (William has around 30 royal patronages to Charles’s 669, for example). Perhaps more interestingly, it seems likely that the “brutal” events of the last year have pushed William – always pitched as the more reserved brother – into being more candid in his communications with the public, as evidenced by his tribute to his wife on her birthday on 9 January.
The Duke of Sussex goes to Canada – and court
Compared to the Duchess, the Duke of Sussex’s year is wide open – although he will very much be in the headlines in the first months of 2025 for two reasons. Firstly, Harry’s due in court (as a claimant) against The Sun newspaper this January, which will bring him back to the UK for a spell (sans Meghan, of course). Then, in February, he’s expected to head to Canada, this time accompanied by the Duchess, for the opening of the Vancouver-Whistler Invictus Games. The cause is great, the location is questionable – as it will inevitably remind the tabloids that, exactly five years earlier, the Sussexes made their retreat from the UK to hide out on Vancouver Island.
The Princess Royal takes centre stage
The Princess Royal is known as both the hardest-working member of the royal family and the one least interested in publicity. That said, the Windsors and the public at large will take a moment to celebrate Anne on 15 August, when she turns 75. Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh – who’s also known to avoid the spotlight – will likewise be celebrating a milestone birthday this year, turning 60 on 20 January.
