King Charles’ Christmas speech included footage of controversial visits

King Charles included footage of two visits in his first Christmas broadcast, which produced some awkward moments for himself and Queen Consort Camilla.

The monarch delivered his first celebratory address since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, in September, and it had a different atmosphere to his mother’s speeches.

The King chose to deliver his message standing up in St George’s Chapel, rather than behind a desk, preventing the annual debate over whose photographs would be on display. Royal observers waited to see if any sort of olive branch would be offered to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

A less-commented feature of the show, however, was that it included footage of two recent events that caused some royal awkwardness.

The first was a visit to York in November where eggs were allegedly thrown at Charles. Patrick Thelwell, 23, has been charged with threatening behavior and is scheduled to appear in magistrates’ court in January.

Nick Price, the prosecutor’s chief of special crimes and counter-terrorism, said the charges followed “a police investigation into an incident involving the throwing of eggs at HM The King in York on November 9, 2022”.

The Christmas broadcast did not show any eggs being thrown, but footage was captured of Charles’ walkabout when the incident occurred.

Shortly thereafter, Camilla is seen meeting children during a visit to Barnardo’s Nursery in London on November 24th. The visit sparked a Twitter backlash after the queen consort awkwardly lifted a girl’s arm by the sleeve, a moment not included on Charles’ broadcast.

Nadine White, race correspondent for The Independent, tweeted at the time: “Camilla, Queen Consort, has sparked a new royal outcry of racism after she was filmed lifting a black child’s arm by the sleeve rather than the wrist while helping children Toys donated to a London charity on Thu hashtag #RacistRoyalFamily has been trending ever since.”

The inclusion of the two segments suggests that the king did not feel that these visits had been marred by the awkwardness surrounding them.

In his speech, he paid tribute to emergency services and healthcare professionals at a time when nurses and ambulance crews were on strike while demanding better wages and working conditions from the UK government. The king also addressed the cost of living crisis.

He made no mention of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whose recent Netflix documentaries have sparked controversy. Harry & Meghan, which fell in two in December, launched new allegations against the monarchy, including that Charles had told some untruths during negotiations on the terms of the couple’s royal exit in January 2020.

Harry told the documentary: “It was terrifying. My brother yelling and yelling at me and my dad saying things that just weren’t true and my grandmother, you know, sitting quietly and kind of taking it all in.”