Dutch royal family broke COVID rules to hold a 21-person party to celebrate heir to the throne turning 18

• The Dutch royal family apologized for breaking COVID-19 rules by throwing a birthday party.
• Princess Amalia invited 21 people to her 18th birthday celebration on Saturday.

The Dutch royal family broke COVID-19 rules to hold a party celebrating the heir to the throne turning 18 years old, and later apologized.

The family said 21 guests attended the 18th birthday party of Princess Amalia, the eldest of King Willem-Alexander's three daughters, the BBC reported.

The celebration, in the royal family's residence in the Hague on Saturday, was also intended to mark her official ascent as her father's heir, according to the BBC.

In a letter sent to parliament on Wednesday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the event was held in the palace gardens and that guests were required to be vaccinated and had to take a COVID-19 test beforehand, according to The Guardian. They also had to follow social-distancing guidelines.

"The king informed me that on reflection, it was not a good idea to organize [the gathering]," Rutte added, The Guardian reported.

The Netherlands currently has strict COVID-19 rules after a surge in cases last month. One of these rules is that people are not allowed to invite more than four people to their house. It applies even if your house is a palace, like the royal residence.

Almost 16,000 people in the Netherlands were infected with the coronavirus in the last week, according to a government website.

The party is not the first time the Dutch royal family was criticized in the pandemic.

In October last year, they cut short a holiday to Greece which they took when the Netherlands had just entered a partial lockdown.