Devastating secret Queen had to keep

At first glance, it looked like a standard royal picture – but the truth behind it was utterly devastating, it’s now been revealed.

IN LONDON

It’s safe to say the start of 2024 will go down as one of the most challenging periods in recent royal history.

Both King Charles and the Princess of Wales were separately hospitalised for what was believed to be non-cancerous surgeries, with it later emerging that both had in fact been diagnosed with different forms of the disease.

News of the King’s cancer came first – but before the public found out, his wife, Queen Camilla was shouldering the majority of royal duties as Prince William took leave to support Kate.

Secretly burdened with concern over her husband, the Queen toured a new cancer support centre in London on January 31, without showing “the slightest flicker” of what she was going through, as a royal aide told Newsweek.

“She had to undertake public duties knowing that the king had been diagnosed with cancer, including a visit to a (care and support centre of cancer charity) Maggie’s in London, and yet not be able to show the slightest flicker of vulnerability when she went there knowing what she knew privately,” the source said.

The Queen spoke with volunteers and visitors to the centre after officially opening 'Maggie's Royal Free', a new cancer support centre, at the Royal Free Hospital in London on January 31. Picture: Paul Grover/Pool/AFP

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The Queen was even asked during the visit how the King was recovering from his hospital procedure, which at the time was publicly thought to be a prostate procedure, and responded: “He’s getting on, doing his best”.

The revelations about the Queen appeared in a new cover story within Newsweek, which also detailed her private turmoil at balancing her duty to the monarchy with her care for her husband.

“It was astonishing how she balanced both of those roles alongside her own private anxieties, in particular during the first period of about a week or 10 days,” the aide said.

“It was exhausting. It would have been draining for a woman half her age. But I think if one is to attempt to see a benefit from that period, actually it did give a chance for the media, and the world, to see some of the work that she had always been doing with greater interest and clarity.”

The King and Queen at the Commonwealth Day service earlier this week. Picture: Aaron Chown – WPA Pool/Getty Images

William and Kate were with them to lead the royal arrivals. Picture: Aaron Chown/Pool/AFP

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Thankfully, both the King and Kate have since returned to royal duties, with the princess announcing earlier this year that she is now in remission.

However, the Prince of Wales admitted late last year during a trip to South Africa that the dual cancer diagnoses had been “brutal” to deal with.

“Honestly? It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life,” he told journalists in South Africa.

But William added that he’d just had to “crack on” with life.

“So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult,” he said.

“But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for ­handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”

Originally published as Devastating secret Queen had to keep