Princess Beatrice will be joining the royal family at Sandringham this Christmas after changing her travel plans due to medical advice, it is understood.

Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, are expecting their second child in early spring and were planning on spending the festive period overseas with his parents.

But Beatrice, 36, has been advised not to travel long distances, the PA news agency reported.

The royal baby will be a little brother or sister for the couple’s three-year-old daughter, Sienna, and Mapelli Mozzi’s son and Beatrice’s stepson, eight-year-old Wolfie.

A large number of the royal family will be guests of King Charles and Queen Camilla at Sandringham on Christmas Day. The Prince of Wales revealed recently that 45 people will be “all in one room” at the private Norfolk estate.

However, Beatrice’s father, the Duke of York, is staying away amid the controversy surrounding his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Last week, a high court hearing revealed that the alleged spy, Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK, was said to have been a “close” confidant of Prince Andrew.

Yang, a businessman whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, was named after a judge lifted the ban on Monday.

In a statement, Yang denied suggestions he was involved in espionage and said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded”.

Last week, Andrew’s office said he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” and with whom “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

The prince’s ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, will also miss Christmas at Sandringham, in what will be considered as a show of solidarity for her former husband.

The pair are said to be preparing to spend the day together at Royal Lodge, the home they share in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire. Beatrice’s sister, Princess Eugenie, and her family are planning on spending Christmas with her in-laws.