This Hot Royal Broke a Christmas Rule For the First Time Since Meghan Markle

When it comes to royal family holiday traditions, there’s no one quite as iconic as the Windsors’ annual walk from Sandringham House to St. Mary Magdalene Church on Christmas Day. The highly-photographed affair offers a chance for high-profile officials like Kate Middleton and Prince William to mingle with commoners, as well as for lesser-known royals to get some public face time. And after 45 family members joined King Charles and Queen Camilla at Sandringham this year, royal watchers got to see Queen Elizabeth’s hot grandnephew break a strict royal Christmas rule for the first time since Meghan Markle.

Back in 2017, Markle was able to flout protocol when she was allowed to join Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family on their Sandringham Christmas walk before she got married. To put things into perspective, Kate and Mike Tindall were prohibited from spending the holidays at Sandringham before their respective marriages, so it was a big deal that Queen Elizabeth decided to bend the plus-one rules for the Suits actress.

The royals have restricted the annual pilgrimage to St. Mary Magdalene to family members and married significant others since then, but that changed this year when Samuel Chatto was allowed to invite his girlfriend, Eleanor Ekserdjian, to Sandringham.

The eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth’s sister Princess Margaret, Chatto isn’t a working royal and rarely makes official appearances with the rest of the family. That hasn’t stopped the pottery artist from becoming a fan-favorite among royal watchers, and the 28-year-old wore a dark brown overcoat with a matching silk tie, gray slacks, black leather dress shoes, and a light blue tartan scarf–a Christmas gift from Charles last year, according to Express–as he joined the monarch and the rest of the Windsors on their December 25 outing.

While Chatto also did the Sandringham walk last December, this year, he made waves as he strode alongside Ekserdjian, whom he began dating in 2021. The fellow artist chose a light gray midi-length coat, a black turtleneck, black boots, and a jaunty black beret for her royal debut.

Chatto might be 29th in line to the throne, but a source reportedly told The DailyMail that King Charles’s blessing might mean that a highly-publicized royal engagement is on the way. "This is a clear sign there will be a royal wedding in the new year," they told the publication, per Express.

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