Prince William and Kate have been accused of breaking the rule of six after they were spotted walking through a woodland trail close to Prince Edward and his family.
The Cambridges, along with Prince George, seven, Princess, Charlotte, five and Prince Louis, two, were photographed at Luminate, a trail of winter lights in Norfolk, with Edward, his wife Sophie and children Lady Louise, 17, and James Viscount Severn, 13.
The two families were said to have arrived separately at the site, which is within tier two restrictions. However, they could be seen appearing to mingle as they walked along the route, albeit while keeping their distance from one another.
In the images, William can be seen leading the group with Louis on his shoulders, followed by George, Charlotte, Kate and Sophie, with Louise, Edward and James bringing up the rear.
Current rules across England mean that no more than six people can meet up outside under any tier if they are not from the same household or support bubble. Children are also included in the six.
Police can legally disperse any groups gathering in groups bigger than six, and can even give out fines of up to £6,400 if people continually flout the rules.
Royal sources have stated that the two families did not intend to meet up, and had ‘separate consecutive slots’ of 4.15pm and 4.30pm to visit the trail.
They told the Daily Mail: ‘They arrived and departed in their own family groups. 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.’
However, a visitor who say the two families said their inadvertent meeting was ‘really quite blatant’ and noted that it felt as though it was ‘one rule for them and another for the rest of us’.
They added: ‘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.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/22/prince-william-and-kate-middleton-accused-of-breaking-rule-of-six-13789595/