King Charles III and Queen Camilla observed Easter Sunday by attending services at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, as they usually do, but amid health turmoil in the royal family, the outing was anything but the traditional family occasion. 

Charles has cut back on public appearances since announcing in February that he had been diagnosed with cancer, which was discovered after he received treatment for a benign enlarged prostate. Earlier this week, Camilla stepped in on Maundy Thursday to distribute monetary gifts to attendees at the pre-Easter service, a role in the ritual that is traditionally performed by the monarch. As Charles undergoes treatment for the unspecified cancer, Camilla, as well as senior working royals like Princess Anne, have represented the family on his behalf more often.

The king and queen’s attendance at Easter Mattins services at St George’s Chapel was confirmed by Buckingham Palace ahead of time, assuring the public that the familiar faces would be present as usual in the time of unprecedented upset in the monarchy. And, sure enough, Charles and Camilla made the short walk to the chapel Sunday morning, waving at a watching crowd as they did. “Happy Easter,” shouted one member of those assembled. “And to you,” Charles called in response.

The king wore his usual suit and tie.  According to Buckingham Palace, Camilla wore a green, Anna Valentine dress, a Philip Treacy hat, and an emerald and diamond brooch once owned by Queen Elizabeth II.

On their way out of the services, Charles stopped to greet and shake hands with the still-assembled crowd outside. “You’re very brave to stand out here in the cold,” he told one.

The rest of the royal contingent was focused on Charles’s siblings and their spouses. Princess Anne and her husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, were seen walking into the chapel, as were Prince Edward, his wife, Sophie Rhys-Jones, and their son, James, Earl of Wessex. 

Also in the small family group were Sarah Ferguson and her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. His appearance comes just days before the release of Netflix’s dramatic adaptation of the furor around his “catastrophic” BBC interview intended to explain his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In past years, their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as well as their respective husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank joined them at the services, but not this year.

Also absent were Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, and her husband, Mike Tindall. The couple typically attends the service with the royal family, as does her brother, Peter Phillips, and his daughters, Savannah and Isla. Phillips, who recently characterized Charles’s desire to return to public life as “pragmatic” but “frustrated,” did not attend, nor did his kids. 

Most notably missing from the pews was the Wales family: Kate Middleton, Prince William, and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. After her own lengthy absence from the public eye following a “planned abdominal surgery” in January, with guidance from Kensington Palace that she would be recovering at least until the Easter holidays, Kate resurfaced last week in a video posted to Kensington Palace’s official social media channels. In the two-minute video, she read a statement that she wrote herself, sitting alone on a bench outside and speaking directly to the camera, sharing the bombshell news that she, too, had been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy as treatment.

The couple’s three children are on holiday from school, and the family of five are spending time together. They would typically attend church along with the ranks of the royal family (last year, the first year the family celebrated the holiday without longtime monarch Queen Elizabeth II, was also the first time that the family’s youngest, Prince Louis, had attended the service), but this year have chosen to spend the holiday in Sandringham, out of the public eye.