The Duchess of Sussex was missing from Sandringham, but there was one member of the Royal Family who benefited from a tradition that was broken for the American former actress.

Princess Margaret’s grandson Samuel Chatto was allowed to invite his girlfriend, Eleanor Ekserdjian, to stay at the Norfolk retreat.

She was able to do so after King Charles followed the example of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth, who permitted Meghan Markle to join the festive gathering in 2017, five months before she exchanged vows with Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Meghan was the first person to be allowed to spend Christmas at Sandringham before marrying into the Royal Family.

Kate Middleton, for example, had to wait until after she became the Duchess of Cambridge and Sophie Rhys-Jones did not stay before she married Prince Edward and received the Countess of Wessex title.

‘This is a clear sign that there will be a royal wedding in the new year,’ remarks an excited observer of the Windsors.

I disclosed in 2021 that Sam, 28, had started going out with Eleanor, who’s an artist and also 28.

Not only had Edinburgh University graduate Sam struck up a romance with the London-based painter, but he had also become her muse.

Eleanor told me at the time: ‘We are a couple.’

Inspired by her new love, the arts professor’s daughter had started depicting Sam in her work.

Eton-educated ceramicist Sam comes from an arty family himself: his mother, the King’s cousin Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, often submits her artworks for the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition, and his father is the actor-turned-artist Daniel Chatto.

Sam, who was left heartbroken when he split up with his first serious girlfriend during the Covid lockdowns, was invited to Buckingham Palace earlier this year for the State Banquet in honour of the emperor and empress of Japan.

Last year, Chatto served an apprenticeship with ‘porcelain master’ Yagi Akira in Japan. Some of Sam’s porcelain formed part of an exhibition in Somerset, mounted by Hauser & Wirth, the gallery of which his cousin, Princess Eugenie, is associate director.

After the late Queen broke tradition for Meghan, Princess Beatrice’s then fiance, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, was allowed to stay at Sandringham at Christmas 2019. The couple were married the following year.