Dire reason for King Charles’ ‘Australia gamble’

Royal insiders have revealed why King Charles insists on touring Australia despite fears the gruelling schedule could threaten his cancer recovery.

King Charles is insisting on visiting Australia despite fears for his cancer recovery in an attempt to “prove he isn’t dying”.

Royal insiders revealed the King is taking a “make or break” gamble that he won’t suffer a “Joe Biden” moment during his first foreign tour of a Commonwealth country.

“It’s all about proving he isn’t dying, to be blunt,” a source within Buckingham Palace told The Daily Beast. “The problem is that if anything goes wrong, people will leap to the opposite conclusion. It’s make-or-break for Charles, I think.”

King Charles’ weekly cancer treatments will be paused for his 11-day tour to the region, which was scaled back for what a palace spokesman said would “ensure Their Majesties’ energies are preserved to be at their best”.

King Charles III is said to be taking a gamble on his tour to Australia to ‘prove he isn’t dying’. Picture: AFP

Queen Camilla reportedly believes the King’s program of events leading up to an even busier tour to the southern hemisphere will actively harm his cancer recovery, but that the workaholic would not listen.

Another concern is if the King has a health episode outside the tightly controlled media environment of the United Kingdom, where British royal correspondents can be relied on not to report on controversial health issues.

“But the Australian media aren’t operating under the same kind of restrictions,” the royal insider said. “If anything goes wrong on the tour —from a bad trip or fall to a cancelled engagement or God forbid, an early exit —they will go to town on it, and the British omertà will probably then evaporate in its wake.”

The King will take two doctors with him on his trip to Australia and then to Samoa for CHOGM, The Times reports.

It is understood the same arrangements are in place for him as they were for the late Queen. They included travelling with a supply of his blood to ensure a match if a transfusion was needed.

As well as travelling with his own doctors, the King will be supported by medical teams during the trip.

Royal correspondent Duncan Larcombe added that the King hasn’t had any “Joe Biden” moments and there was no reason to think he would start during his tour to Australia.

“If a wobbly moment did happen, then the tour could backfire spectacularly. It is of course a risk that applies to his general diary, but that is exactly why, when it comes to domestic engagements, nothing is being announced until the last minute. You can’t do that on a foreign tour,” he told the Beast.

The official Australian portrait of His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace in London, England. Picture: NewsWire / Supplied

During their visit to Sydney, the King and Queen will tour Royal Australian Navy ships and join a barbecue with multicultural groups, discuss the work Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders are doing to strengthen culture and support their communities.

The Queen will meet children participating in a Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition workshop and visit a library.

In Canberra, they will be welcomed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Parliament House, and pay their respects at the Australian War Memorial. The King will discuss climate change during a visit to the National Botanic Gardens, and meet scientists at the CSIRO.

Originally published as Dire reason for King Charles’ ‘Australia gamble’