‘Too many more moments’: William’s telling Charles update revealed

A startling, throwaway line from the Prince of Wales while on an army engagement raises one huge question about his father’s future.

It’s not often you find 780 square kilometres of free space in crammed modern Britain, so what better thing to do with Salisbury Plain than dot it with guns and let some gung-ho army recruits have a right old blast off?

And where better to take a prince (William of Wales) to fire some live rounds and to get in some much-needed practice wearing the combat uniform of the Welsh Guards, the elite regiment of which he is the Colonel?

Boom, boom, boom, went the 42-year-old on Tuesday as he shot a sniper rifle and watched the Guards fiddle about with some drones.

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And where better to do some accidental clue-dropping about his father King Charles’ future?

With myriad army personnel neatly arrayed and on their best behaviour and the royal press pack neatly squared away so HRH could not accidentally decapitate any particular hack, off things went – only for him to let slip about what comes next for his cancer-fighting dear old dad.

You see, for a while now, the Welsh Guards have been on ceremonial duty and therefore far away from actual whizzing bullets and front lines, having been heavily involved during the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and during Charles’ coronation-a-thon last year.

Prince William’s comments were very telling. Picture: Chris Jackson – Pool/Getty Images

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Now, the Guards are headed back out into Field Duty (yes, with capitals) and so on Tuesday, William was having a nice bit of chitchat about exactly this.

Speaking to the battalion’s six-strong sniper team, he said of their move back into the field: “It’s good to get out of ceremonial [duties], isn’t it. You guys have done more than your fair share of that, I’m sorry … I’m going to make sure my father doesn’t squeeze in too many more moments!”

It’s an exchange that could be read as nothing more than some moderately sized talk being done by a man whose day job is to put the hoi and polloi at ease as they shake hands – except those “moments” that the Prince of Wales lightheartedly told the snipers he will “make sure” don’t happen again any time soon are the sorts of monarchy-shaking, world-stopping events that normally only happen once every generation, like the death of the sovereign and the accession of the new one.

We are disconcertingly fast approaching the 12-month mark of the King’s treatment for cancer.

What sort, what stripe of treatment, the prognosis: These are all questions that no one outside His Majesty’s medical team, the royal family and probably his go-to Sloane Square herbalist have full knowledge of, but clearly, it’s more than a dodgy mole that needed removing.

Against this backdrop, William quipping about ‘squeezing in too many more moments’ like a funeral or coronation suddenly takes on a whole new and significant light.

The monarch has been battling cancer for many months. Picture: Toby Melville/Pool/AFP

Elsewhere, there is unequivocal, pip-pip-hooray good news about the King, with a tour for he and Queen Camilla to India next year “in the offing”, according to TheMirror’s Russell Myers.

He reports that “officials have been given the green light” to begin the leg work for the trip.

All of this is, on balance, super duper news. (Shall we throw in another pip?) But we are all still operating on wholly new ground, both the media and courtiers.

Buckingham Palace has, with Charles, largely opted for a policy of a new and much less furtive approach to revealing details about the King’s health, which goes totally against all precedent.

One story that has not gotten as much attention as it should have (thanks to Prince ‘Pal-y with Pedophiles’ Andrew and the self-appointed Duke and Duchess of Bean Spilling) is the squirrely game that the Palace played about the late Queen’s health.

What emerged after her death was that she had been battling a rare form of bone marrow cancer, a situation that was kept more covertly and expertly under wraps than Camilla’s bra size and specific drinks order.

For a while now, the Welsh Guards have been on ceremonial duty only. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Ever since February, when the Palace announced that His Majesty had come face-to-face with the dreaded ‘C’ word, they have been charting a new course, away from their predecessors’ Soviet-style information blackout but also while maintaining the King’s dignity and privacy. Yes, anointed monarchs deserve some too.

The same holds for princes and sons, who are working out in real time how to be public figures who have to spend their days near journalists and normal people who will repeat things while their father is also battling cancer.

We are all in uncharted territory and working it out, day by day; you, me, Fleet Street and His Majesty.

The pressure on him must be huge, not least an oft-overlooked duty – the Welsh Guards’ official mascot is their regimental goat which traditionally has to be approved by the King.

The jokes about the nanny state just write themselves.

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