Catherine, the Princess of Wales, made a public return to the annual Easter Matins Service at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor on Sunday, attending the traditional service in person after two years of observing Easter privately. Walking on foot alongside members of the extended royal family, the princess’s appearance also coincided with the Wales family’s first Easter in their new home, Forest Lodge, inside Windsor Great Park.
For the service, the Princess of Wales rewore a cream Self-Portrait dress she first wore in 2022, pairing it with a matching hat, a simple cross necklace and pearl drop earrings that observers noted appear to be Queen Elizabeth II’s Bahrain Pearl Drop earrings. The dress choice returned her to a paler palette she last favoured at St. George’s in 2017; in recent years she has more commonly chosen shades of blue and tailored coatdresses for Easter Sunday public engagements. This was only her sixth attendance at the Windsor Easter Matins service, the palace appearances tallying intermittently as family circumstances and official duties have varied.
The occasion came less than a year after the Waleses moved into Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom house inside Windsor Great Park. A palace source speaking to the BBC said the move “gives them an opportunity for a fresh start and a new chapter,” and suggested the change of residence offers a chance “to leave some of the more unhappy memories behind.” The family relocated from Adelaide Cottage last autumn, a move framed by royal aides as part practical and part personal.
Traditionally, members of the royal family have enjoyed a roast lamb lunch at Windsor Castle following Easter services, though it remains unclear whether the Wales family joins that meal. There is also longstanding speculation that the Princess and Prince of Wales involve their children in private Easter traditions: in 2018 William and Kate said their eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, had taken part in an Easter egg hunt earlier that day, and similar private family rituals are widely assumed to continue.
Sunday’s service brought the extended family together on Windsor’s historic grounds as the couple settle into their new residence. The return to a public Easter appearance follows a period in which the princess considerably reduced her public-facing engagements, and her choice to revisit a previously worn dress underlined her often-noted practice of reusing outfits for public and charitable duties.
Photographs from the service showed the Wales family arriving at St. George’s Chapel with other relatives; the official programme for the annual Matins service was otherwise in keeping with royal tradition. With the move to Forest Lodge and a renewed pattern of public appearances, royal aides and commentators are watching to see how the couple balance private family life with continuing royal duties in the months ahead.