Kate Middleton vs. Meghan Markle: Battle of the royal Christmases

A peculiar royal battle is set to ensue soon thanks to separate Christmas projects — those hosted by Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle.

While the Princess of Wales will be hosting her annual Together at Christmas ceremony on December 5, her sister-in-law will appear in the holiday special of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan just a few days earlier.

While the Duchess of Sussex’s Holiday Celebration episode will be released on December 3, royal followers will need to wait two whole days before a verdict can be reached between the two royal festivities.

Will Kate be able to set the same magical tone with her annual Christmas tradition once again, or will Meghan beat the Princess at her own game this year, with a considerable head start?

Debut vs. experience

In the commercial arena of Christmas celebrations, Meghan Markle is set to make her debut where Kate Middleton is already well equipped — the future queen’s Christmas ceremony began in 2021, while the former actress is just launching her holiday-themed project for the first time in 2025.

What the Duchess lacks in experience, she could likely make up for with her individuality. Where her separation from the royal establishment could result in a huge chunk of the audience being alienated from her screen endeavour, she simultaneously boasts a strong fanbase dedicated to the Sussex brand and perhaps, anti-monarchists, and certainly, Americans.

The viewers clash

Since the two royal events are in fact streamed, a significant measure of comparison between them is down to the count of viewers — one between Kate and Meghan will seize the victory if one’s project scores more views than the other’s.

While Together at Christmas amassed around 3.3 million viewers last year, the event is usually beaten in ratings by stiff competition from the monarch’s annual Christmas address in the UK — as most Christmas TV events in the country usually are. However, there are also a host of other specials which Kate’s concert typically struggles to surpass in viewer ratings. Like the holiday-themed episode of Gavin & Stacey in 2024, a series starring James Corden and Ruth Jones, with The Guardian reporting, “12.3 million viewers tuned in live to the last episode of long-running BBC sitcom.”

On the other hand, Meghan’s show has also seen its fair share of struggle to gain viewers since its debut in March earlier this year. Though it has an edge over Kate’s annual special as the lifestyle series is hosted by Netflix, and the streaming giant provides the opportunity for viewers to tune into the show all year round — unlike Together at Christmas on ITV.

Though Kate’s special is also available on the British network’s app ITVX, the platform is obviously much smaller in scale, and rather local. This difference was best reflected when Netflix’s engagement report had dropped in July, which showed that With Love, Meghan had secured the 383rd spot on the ratings chart and still came away with 5.3 million views — two million more than last year’s Together at Christmas.

Contesting celebrity power

Neither Kate Middleton nor Meghan Markle will embark on their Christmas journeys without a little help from their celebrity friends — while British stars Kate Winslet, Hannah Waddingham, and Chiwetel Ejiofor will appear on Together at Christmas, tennis star Naomi Osaka and celebrity chef Tom Colicchio are among the famous names set to appear in With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration.

Even the monarchy’s harshest critics may have to concede that the Princess of Wales has her sister-in-law beat in the celebrity department. However, it does appear that the Duchess of Sussex has decidedly limited the number of celebrity cameos for her upcoming episode. She was previously joined by several of them in the first two seasons of her show — including Mindy Kaling, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Tan France, and her Suits co-star, Abigail Spencer.