By Molly Claire Goddard
4:25pm PST, Nov 19, 2025
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Meghan Markle's Netflix holiday special was originally slated to debut in November, but it will now launch on December 3 — just two days before Kate Middleton hosts her annual "Royal Carols: Together at Christmas" event at Westminster Abbey.
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During an appearance on TalkTV, royal expert Kinsey Schofield claimed the move was intentional. "Meghan [Markle] told the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in Washington, D.C., that her holiday special was going to be released in November. And pushing it to December 3, I thought, was intentional because Kate [Middleton] has her annual Christmas event on December 5," she said. Host Mark Donal replied, "So she moved her event to the same week. That is a scorched-earth policy."
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It's far from the first time royals have been accused of upstaging each other.
Prince Harry, for example, made headlines when he recently traveled to Canada in honor of Remembrance Day while
Prince William was in the midst of an official visit to Brazil for the 2025 Earthshot Prize Awards. "To many inside and outside the royal machine, Harry will appear motivated by resentment and a desire for revenge rather than respect for the Remembrance calendar. If so, it is a miscalculation, and a reminder that the brothers' ceasefire remains anything but secure," royal expert
Tom Sykes wrote for
The Daily Beast.
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Kate Middleton might have more than one problem with her yearly holiday gathering. According to reporter
Jasmine Carey, the ceremony could get awkward if
Princess Beatrice and
Princess Eugenie attend, given their parents,
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and
Sarah Ferguson, recently lost their titles over their ties to
Jeffrey Epstein. "While they are not involved in their father's scandals and have not lost their royal titles like their parents have, Beatrice and Eugenie's attendance could actually overshadow the event," she wrote for
Daily Express.
