Prince William, Kate Middleton accused of breaking lockdown rules with Wessexes

Members of the British royal family have been accused of inadvertently violating lockdown rules in the United Kingdom with a recent visit.

The Cambridges and the Wessexes were pictured together at Sandringham on Sunday, in an apparent violation of the new lockdown rules imposed in the UK amid rising cases of coronavirus infections. In pictures obtained by Mail Online, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, were seen standing together with Prince Edward, Countess Sophie, their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.

According to the outlet, the two families were visiting Luminate, a Christmas-themed woodland walk in The Queen's Norfolk Estate. The members of both the families were seen mixing and chatting on several occasions during the walk.

Their gathering has seemingly violated the strict regulations that are in place in order to stop the spread of the virus, with a tiered system in force across England. Sandringham has Tier 2 restrictions in place, which implies that it is against the law for more than six people to meet in a public place at any time.

William and Kate have been staying with their children at their country home Anmer Hall in Norfolk for the last ten days, while Edward and Sophie and their children were at their home in Bagshot Park. Both families had arrived at the park separately, with sources insisting that there was no intention for either group to meet, and that the mingling was completely unintentional.

A royal source told the outlet: "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."

"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," the insider added.

However, a visitor said "they were clearly breaking Covid rules," as 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. 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," the visitor noted.

There is a fixed penalty notice of £200 for the first offence of breaking lockdown rules, doubling for each further offence up to £6,400.