Shocking reason King Charles is really visiting Australia exposed
King Charles has touched down in Australia – and now, an insider has made a shocking claim about why the 75-year-old is really here.
When King Charles and his Crockett & Jones shoes touched the tarmac in Sydney on Friday night, history was made.
It was one small step for the much-travelled brogues, which His Majesty has probably been rewearing since Mrs Thatcher started getting ideas above her station, but a giant leap for the throne.
Never before has a King of Australia (of which he officially is) actually stepped foot on Australian soil. Bit of an oversight, that.
So, let it ring out. Charles is here, Charles is here, Charles is here. Our King and Queen are in Sydney, readying themselves to press the antipodean flesh and to be forcibly reminded why one must always wear SPF30+.
In another version of 2024, where the most debilitating thing that had happened to Charles was a fountain pen malfunctioning while signing off on the latest OBE list and his lunch order (“Another salad sandwich, Your Highness?”) him coming to Australia would be not only expected, but demanded.
But as Diana, Princess of Wales infamously said, there were three people in their marriage; well – there are three characters on this tour. The King, the Queen and the cancer that His Majesty is currently battling.
Last week, it was revealed he was stopping his treatment so he could undertake this tour to Australia and then next week to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
So why has he just paused his medical regime and flown 17,000km with his wife who hates flying?
One former courtier has a stunner of a theory – that the only reason that the King is actually coming to Australia is to “prove he isn’t dying”.
And you thought royal tours were duller than a month-old greying dish towel.
Even if every outing, every cup of tea and handshake and photo op goes perfectly to plan, it’s still going to be a dicey four days for His Majesty.
The dangers this tour pose are very real, and that’s even before we consider the things that could bite, sting or burn him if he spends too much time in the undergrowth of Admiralty House inspecting its mulching system.
Never has a tour had so much potential to go so wrong.
Charles has done more than 200 tours to over 70 countries in his life and this is his 17th to Australia alone – to wit, he is an old, very practised hand at this game.
No, where the possible danger lies is – golly, this is awkward – well, with us here at news.com.au. And with the Australian media as a whole. Not because we have particularly sharp teeth or will be doing any lurking around shrubbery, but because insiders are already concerned about what the local press might say about the King.
“The royal rota [the accredited pack of British royal correspondents travelling with the king] aren’t too much of a problem – they aren’t going to say anything controversial about Charles’ health unless he literally falls down dead in the street,” one former royal staffer has told The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes.
“But the Australian media aren’t operating under the same kind of restrictions. 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.”
To which I would say, indeedy. That’s what it says on the journalistic tin. Things happen, we write about them, Nescafe is drunk. It’s a glamorous business.
Given the possible peril of this tour then, we get to the meat of the situation here – why?
Why has he pushed himself to come here, and why has he decided to do about 60 hours of flying in 11 days while clearly under par health-wise?
One former courtier has offered The Daily Beast’s Sykes a brutal and blunt assessment.
“It’s all about proving he isn’t dying, to be blunt,” they said.
“The problem is that if anything goes wrong, people will leap to the opposite conclusion. It’s make-or-break for Charles, I think.”
That last sentence, the “make-or-break” part, is bang on.
While on one hand, the first two years of the Carolean age have gone far better than anyone might have hoped – relatively buoyant support in the UK, warm receptions, praise for his newfangled inclusiveness and the installation of solar panels everywhere he goes – on the other, it has been a bumpy ride.
There has been the Harry Hurdle, the King’s younger son and the Duke of Sussex having published his memoir and dramatically yanked back the curtain on royal life, brimming with gusto, anger and hurt. Not helping the situation was the claim aired last year by Sussex acolyte Omid Scobie in his book Endgame that the King was one of the so-called “royal racists”, or the fact that Harry is currently suing his father’s own government over his security arrangements.
For some strange reason, the last three times that Harry has been in London in the last five months, Charles has been too busy to see the duke.
Then came some surgery for His Majesty in January for an enlarged prostate and blamo, cancer entered the frame.
Rather than spending the year really building his legacy and really giving Camilla something to worry about in terms of his workaholism, the King has, every week, been ferried off for treatment as he battles an unknown type of the disease.
And all of this while facing down the no small task of doing his bit to ensure a smoothish transition of the monarchy after 70 years under the very steady hands and stewardship of the late Queen.
That the King’s doctors have given him permission to pause his treatment for this 11 day round trip is a chipper sign indeed – but it also lays bare the painful fact that the onward sweep of the monarchy is not guaranteed.
Charles might know a thing or two about hand-stitched loafers, but he also has a strong and fluent understanding of Duty.
So let me take this opportunity to welcome Their Majesties to Australia – we are so jolly pleased to have you here. Do try our wine, it’s excellent, and remember, always wear sunscreen. Even when under a tree.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
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