Royal Ascot opened today at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, running through Saturday June 20, and the royal family arrived by horse-drawn carriage as it has done for the better part of three centuries. King Charles and Queen Camilla led the procession. William and Kate followed. Princess Charlotte’s mother wore a butter-yellow coat dress. The institution performed its function, the horses ran, and everyone had hats. And yet, as of last week, sources were briefing that William and Kate might not show up at all, depending on who else was in attendance.
The complication is Andrew. Per Reality Tea, reporting from March 2026, sources suggested that Prince William and Kate may decide not to attend Royal Ascot if Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie are present. The York sisters retain their royal titles despite their father’s arrest in February 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in office, which he denies and which resulted in King Charles stripping him of his remaining titles in 2025. The Prince and Princess of Wales are, per those sources, “careful about public perception” and wary of appearing alongside any association with the Andrew situation. They showed up today, which means either the York sisters are not attending or the calculation was made that absence would generate more commentary than presence.
Hello! Magazine’s live coverage today confirmed Kate’s butter-yellow coat dress, noted the Princess of Wales and Duchess Sophie executed “the perfect double curtsy” at Garter Day yesterday, and reported that Kate gazed “proudly” at William as he walked past in the annual Garter Day procession. These are the details the coverage produces. They are real details. They are also the details of a monarchy performing normality while navigating a situation involving an arrested former senior royal, an ongoing Sussex estrangement, and a set of attendance decisions being made on the basis of perceived optics.
The Ascot dress code is serious. The Royal Enclosure requires formal morning dress for men and “midcalf or below” hemlines with a hat for women. This is enforced. It is enforced more consistently than several of the family relationships currently under strain. Milliners told Marie Claire today that Kate’s bold fashion choices have inspired Royal Ascot’s official Colour of the Year for 2026, which means the Princess of Wales has now influenced the hat industry, something that could not have been predicted when she was a Berkshire girl who hadn’t met a prince yet.
The five-day schedule runs through Saturday. Wednesday features the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, named for William, which he will presumably attend for reasons beyond horse racing. Thursday is Gold Cup day, the most prestigious race of the week. The York sisters’ attendance status has not been publicly confirmed, which is its own kind of royal communication. The institution that survived a civil war, multiple divorces, a documented scandal, and six years of Sussex memoirs is now managing its Ascot attendance list around whether Andrew’s daughters might show up. The hats are lovely. The subtext is working overtime.
Meghan Markle is not in attendance, having not been invited and being in California, where she is today launching the summer drop of her lifestyle brand As Ever. Hello! noted in its Ascot live blog that it is “new product launch day for the Duchess of Sussex,” a line that was presumably written without irony and absolutely should have been. The product is a jam.
The races continue tomorrow. Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes field includes Noble Speech, the reigning Breeders’ Cup Mile champion, and his stablemate Opera Ballo. The family attending the race named after one of them is, by most accounts, managing. The horses do not appear to be tracking any of this.
When an institution’s attendance decisions at a horse race require source-briefing and optics management, what exactly is the institution managing?
Sources
Hello! Magazine: Royal family LIVE: King Charles and Queen Camilla to lead first day of Royal Ascot
Reality Tea: Prince William & Kate Middleton May Skip Event If 2 Royals Go — Source
Marie Claire: Milliners Share the Secrets Behind Royal Ascot’s Famous Hats
