Stoic Camilla, ‘work-shy’ William to bear brunt of family’s workload

King Charles. Picture: Getty Images

The gravity of King Charles’s cancer diagnosis cannot be understated. Just 17 months into his reign, the workaholic monarch is now spending his days at a London cancer centre receiving a cocktail of treatments to stop the spread of his cancer, the specifics of which have not been released by Buckingham Palace.

Charles, 75, with his holistic approach to medicine, had always seemed the healthy one, while Queen Camilla, with her broken toe causing much pain at May’s coronation, was seemingly more frail. Yet it will be stoic Camilla, 76, who will insist on carrying out as many engagements as possible to “keep the show on the road”, while providing comfort and encouragement to her husband in the coming months.

The King and Queen’s long-awaited Australian visit later in the year, on the back of October’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa, is likely to be much shorter, or may be postponed depending on how Charles recovers.

Constitutionally there is no immediate concern, although if Charles becomes incapacitated, the counsellors of state, who include Camilla, Prince of Wales William, Princess Royal Anne and Duke of Edinburgh Prince Edward, can take over official duties.

But His Majesty’s shock diagnosis has raised ongoing questions about the line of succession. If something were to happen to both Charles and William, 41, it would be the disliked second son, Prince Harry, who would become Regent until Prince George, now 10, is of an age to rule.

William has already indicated he will carry out more royal duties, after taking time off to help wife Catherine recover from her abdominal surgery last month. The first is William taking Charles’s place to hold an investiture at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

King Charles and Queen Camilla in Sandringham on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

William, often called “work-shy”, carried out the same number of royal engagements in 2023 as his 79-year-old second cousin Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, but will face pressure to take a significant load off Charles.

Princess Anne is the hardest-working royal, carrying out around 13 engagements a week, whereas William and Catherine had one or two a week in 2023, according to the Court Circular.

All the while, Harry, whose treachery caused so much pain to his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in their final years, has dashed to the British capital without his deeply unpopular wife, Meghan Markle, or their two children.

It is unclear why Harry, whose recent delusions include accepting a “Living Legend of Aviation award”, believes he alone can help soothe more than four years of deep family division when a cheerful hug from grandchildren Prince Archie, five in May, and Princess Lilibet, 2, may have given Charles a fillip and a welcome distraction from his medical ailments.

Charles’s decision to be open and forthcoming about his health has been a marked change from previous royal health scares, and is in line with his fervent desire to encourage others to undergo regular medical checks.

“The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure,” a Buckingham Palace statement said. “His Majesty has chosen to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer.”

Most of the British public don’t have access to the private care provided to the royals, and have to negotiate an increasingly creaky National Health Service, where an initial worry about a cancer could take as long as six weeks before undergoing important scans.

However, it appears in Charles’s case, his cancer, detected while undergoing treatment for a benign prostate issue last month, may have been caught early, helping with his long-term prognosis.

Palace aides have reassured others Charles wants to carry on with business as usual, including meeting each week – perhaps virtually – with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and dealing with the red box of government paperwork.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate, and the royals have had several diagnoses, including to Queen Elizabeth II, who was suffering from myeloma, a painful bone cancer, when she died in September 2022.

The Queen Mother had colon and breast tumours in her lifetime before dying at 101 in 2002.

Charles’s grandfather, King George VI, was a heavy smoker, and, while he had his left lung removed in 1951, it is unclear if he knew he had malignant cancer.

He died six months later, to the great distress of the nation and his family, while his heir and daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was on a Commonwealth tour in Kenya.

Most recently, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma, months after battling breast cancer.