Kate Middleton and Prince William Have Been Accused of Breaking Lockdown Rules

• Kate Middleton and Prince William have been accused of breaking lockdown rules after they were spotted at an outdoor attraction with Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's family.
• Kate, William, and their three children, as well as Edward, Sophie, and their two children, were photographed at the Luminate outdoor trail on the Sandringham Estate Sunday, seemingly breaking the UK's "rule of six."
• An inside source, however, said that the royals did not intend to visit the attraction as a group of nine, adding that any contact between the households was accidental.

Kate Middleton and Prince William have been accused of breaking UK lockdown rules, after they were photographed on an outdoor walk with Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's family. Kate, William, and children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, along with Edward, Sophie, and children Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, were spotted visiting the Luminate attraction, an illuminated woodland trail, on the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on Sunday.

In photos published by the Daily Mail, the royals can be seen walking the trail as a group of nine. The UK is currently under a tiered system of lockdown rules, with Norfolk in tier two; under this tier, people from different households may meet outdoors in groups of no more than six.

"They were clearly breaking Covid rules, in my opinion, because there were nine of them from two separate households. They were obviously all having a fun evening out. You could tell that the royal youngsters were having a great time," a fellow visitor to the attraction told the Daily Mail. "But I couldn't help thinking that it was one rule for them and another for the rest of us. It was really quite blatant."

A royal source, however, denied that the Cambridges and the Wessexes attended the woodland walk as a group of nine, and said that any contact was accidental. "The two families were given separate consecutive slots to visit the trail just before it opened to the general public. They arrived and departed in their own family groups," the source said. "As anyone with young children will know, there were moments on the 90-minute walk where it was difficult to keep the two family groups apart, particularly at bottlenecks on the trail."