Shadows of a difficult 2021 loom over Royal Family ahead of next year's Platinum Jubilee

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Some years are better than others. For the Royal Family, this has not been one of the better ones.

Many of the troubles the House of Windsor faced in 2021 show little sign of fading as the calendar turns to 2022, a year when attention will focus on marking the Platinum Jubilee to honour Queen Elizabeth's 70 years as monarch.

Royal author and biographer Penny Junor says 2021 has been a very difficult year for the Royal Family.

"One thing after another has hit them," Junor said in an interview. "And I think it's been a very damaging year for them."

Most damaging, Junor said, is the combination of two circumstances. 

One is what has come from Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in California, including their interview last March with Oprah Winfrey, where discussion of their life in the Royal Family raised issues of race and support for mental health, among several others. 

The other circumstance is the saga surrounding Prince Andrew and the fallout from his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"Neither of these problems is going away any time soon, I don't think, and Harry is promising his memoirs [in 2022], which must be hanging over the family like the sword of Damocles," said Junor.

"Who knows what he's going to say. Who knows what his truth is."

In addition to the controversies surrounding Harry, Meghan and Andrew, the Queen lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, on April 9.

Pandemic restrictions at the time of his death meant a small family funeral in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and much attention focused on the dignified — but lonely — figure cut by the Queen.

"Those images of the Queen sitting alone in her mask at Prince Philip's funeral became more widely iconic of the COVID-19 pandemic for those who had lost loved ones," Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris said in an interview.

There were moments that were more hopeful for the family — four great-grandchildren of the Queen were born this year. Junor also pointed to an increased profile for Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.