London, Dec 28, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – The royal family’s 2025 marked a step forward for King Charles III and Kate, princess of Wales, with both sharing good news in the wake of their cancer diagnoses.
But it was also dominated by the scandal surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, with the king moving to draw a line under the controversy as he formally stripped his brother of his titles in a dramatic banishment.
The king brought Christmas cheer when he revealed in December he had been given the go-ahead to reduce his schedule of cancer treatment in the new year.
Charles, who has been facing weekly treatment for nearly two years, described the “good news” as a “personal blessing” and urged others to check which screening tests they might be eligible for via a new national tool screeningchecker.co.uk during his “Stand Up To Cancer” broadcast.
The monarch, who is known for being a workaholic, has forged ahead with a busy programme of royal duties over the past 12 months.
He travelled to Poland on Holocaust Memorial Day in January to attend moving events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.
In March, he suffered a setback after spending time in hospital due to the side effects of his cancer treatment.
The king and queen celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in April, during a state visit to Italy, which included a visit to the colosseum and a private meeting with the ailing pope Francis after they postponed a state visit to the Vatican because of the pontiff’s health.
Charles also became the first British monarch to address the Italian parliament.
In May, Charles and Camilla spent two days in Canada, their first trip to the country as its king and queen, with Charles opening the current session of parliament.
In June, the monarch clocked up the 1,000th day of his reign since his accession to the throne.
In October, Charles became the first British monarch since the Reformation to pray alongside a pope, when he joined the new pontiff, Leo XIV, at a public service in the Vatican for a rescheduled state visit.
Charles marked his 77th birthday by taking the controls of a tram-train as he officially opened a new rail depot in Taff’s Well near Cardiff in south Wales.
Charles and Camilla also hosted three incoming state visits to the UK – the first time there had been this many in one year in nearly four decades.
Along with welcoming the French and German presidents, the visits included the high-profile trip by controversial US president Donald Trump.
The American leader was feted with a banquet, but kept within the grounds of Windsor, away from the public, for the royal elements of his stay.
Trump praised the princess of Wales for being “so radiant and so healthy and so beautiful”, called Charles a “great gentleman and a great king” and said the visit was “wonderful” and that he ate “whatever the hell they served us” at the sumptuous state dinner.
The princess of Wales
Kate announced she was in remission from cancer in January, after a surprise visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London where she was treated.
She described it as a “relief” and said she remained “focused on recovery,” adding “there is much to look forward to.”
She made a surprise appearance at a Holocaust Memorial Day service in London and throughout the year gradually increased her public engagements.
She supported the king and queen at the three incoming state visits, attending her first state banquet in nearly two years in honour of Emmanuel Macron in July, doing the same for President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and Donald Trump.
The princess warned about the “epidemic of disconnection” created by smart phones and other gadgets, and urged society to “invest in the relationships you have with each other” in an essay in October.
She also debuted a new “bronde” look, stepping out with a blonder balayage in September.
The Waleses carried out a visit to Southport to show their support after last year’s fatal knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
William and Kate met the parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at two schools which the girls attended.
Andrew had been embroiled in controversy for years over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations, which he denies, that he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager and had been trafficked by Epstein.
Giuffre’s death by suicide in April, her posthumous memoir “Nobody’s Girl” and the release of documents and emails relating to Epstein intensified the focus on the late queen’s second son.
It emerged he emailed Epstein telling him “we are in this together” in 2011, three months after he claimed he had broken off all contact with the sex offender.
Andrew stepped away from his public role in 2019 and later paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Giuffre, whom Andrew claimed never to have met despite being pictured with his arm around her, at now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in London.
In 2022, his mother Queen Elizabeth II ordered him to stop using his HRH style, and removed his honorary military roles.
Andrew agreed to no longer use his duke of York title in October, but the king went a step further a fortnight later and dramatically stripped him of both his right to be a prince and his dukedom, making Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor a commoner for the first time.
In what was dubbed the siege of Royal Lodge, there was growing pressure for Andrew to give up his 30-room mansion, after it emerged he had been paying a “peppercorn” rent for decades.
He finally agreed to quit Royal Lodge for a new home on the king’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk in the New Year, with Charles personally funding his new life with an annual stipend.
Just before Christmas, newly-surfaced emails from the Epstein files revealed one sent from Balmoral and signed “A” asking Maxwell “have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”.
Andrew has faced calls from a powerful US congressional committee to give evidence about Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
The loss of Andrew’s titles meant his ex-wife reverted back to her maiden name of Sarah Ferguson, with the former duchess also criticized for writing to Epstein after his conviction calling him a “supreme friend,” despite publicly disowning him in the media.
Meanwhile, there was some joyful family news for the former Yorks when their daughter Princess Beatrice gave birth to her second child, Athena, welcoming her several weeks prematurely in January 2025.
The duke of Sussex
Harry settled a High Court case after securing an “unequivocal apology” from News Group Newspapers in January for “serious intrusion,” including unlawful activities by private investigators, into his private life while younger and that of his late mother Diana.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, ruled out trying to deport Harry after it was alleged that drug use referenced in his memoir could have disqualified him from a US visa, with the US president remarking “I’ll leave him alone” and adding “He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
In May, Harry gave an interview to the BBC in which he claimed the king would not speak to him because of his legal battle over his security and he did not know “how much longer my father has” as he described his hopes for a “reconciliation.”
The sit-down chat came after the duke lost a Court of Appeal challenge against the Home Office over his security arrangements while in the United Kingdom.
He was finally reunited with the monarch on a whirlwind working trip to the UK in September, which included the WellChild Awards and Nottingham’s Community Recording Studio.
Harry and Charles had afternoon tea at Clarence House after 19 months apart, with the duke describing his father as “great.”
But there was no reunion with his brother William.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan signed a new watered down first-look deal with Netflix.
Output in 2025 focused on Meghan’s critically panned lifestyle series “With Love, Meghan.”
And the duke cut ties with Sentebale, the charity he founded to help Aids orphans in Lesotho in memory of his mother.
He was left devastated after a bitter boardroom battle with chair Dr Sophie Chandauka, who made allegations of bullying, harassment and misogyny at the charity.
Meghan launched her lifestyle brand As Ever – renamed from American Riviera Orchard amid trademark difficulties in 2025, selling jams, flower sprinkles and later on wine, after her show “With Love, Meghan” premiered on Netflix.
Two seasons of the series plus a Christmas special aired, but the show was widely savaged in reviews and branded “pointless” and an “exercise in narcissism.”
The former “Suits” star also revealed she sends emails almost every night to her children before she goes to bed at night for them to read when older.
Meghan sent a letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle after he was treated in intensive care in the Philippines after having his leg amputated.
GNA