Why Prince William will attend the pope's funeral instead of King Charles

He's representing his dad

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend The Order of The Garter service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on June 13, 2022 in Windsor, England.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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Prince William will attend Pope Francis' funeral, while King Charles will skip it.

Per BBC News, Kensington Palace has announced that the Prince of Wales will be making the journey to Rome to attend the service on Saturday.

The funeral will take place at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Other major world figures who have confirmed their attendance include Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, and Emmanuel Macron.

One glaring absence, though, will be that of King Charles. However, Buckingham Palace has confirmed that his absence is in accordance with both royal protocol and precedent: Vanity Fair reports that monarchs do not attend funerals.

This statement is a bit of an over-generalisation, given that of course Charles attend the funeral of his mother the Queen in 2022, but presumably this just means he limits the number of funerals he does attend.

With all that said, Charles and his wife Queen Camilla were among the last people to visit Pope Francis before his passing. Two weeks ago, according to the BBC, the royal couple visited the religious leader at the Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City.

A representative for Buckingham Palace said that the meeting had been a "very significant and special moment" — not least because it fell on Charles and Camilla's 20th wedding anniversary.

The pope died at age 88 on Easter Monday, following a stroke. Before his passing, however, he had been able to greet crowds of well-wishers in Vatican City on Easter Sunday.

The news of William's attendance at the pope's funeral comes after some controversy surrounding his and Princess Kate's decision to skip the annual royal Easter service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor. Instead the Wales family opted to celebrate more quietly at Sandringham — but this apparently didn't sit well with everyone.

"Everyone understood the family not attending last year when Kate was sick but there's been a lot of raised eyebrows at the palace about William's decision to skip again this year," a source told Us Weekly. "It feels like a deliberate move and even a snub."

Oops.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.