‘Painfully hard to ignore’: Grim new King Charles photo exposes royal crisis

An otherwise ordinary shot of King Charles lays bare the desperate situation that’s unfolding behind Palace gates.

Maybe Queen Camilla was having a lie in?

Late last month, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, King Charles, did his bit to fulfil that regal KPI and trotted off to hear the Good Word and really enjoy belting out the high notes of Jerusalem with no sign of his good lady wife.

Not that long ago, no one would have bothered to spend any time looking at the photos of this outing. No matter that he is the 40th anointed monarch since 1066, shots of a smiley grandfather in a 40-year-old houndstooth coat have all the appeal of room temp porridge.

But look at these shots of Charles attending St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate we must. Because the change in Charles’ appearance is painfully hard to ignore.

Contrast his grey visage with that of only a handful of years ago, in early 2020, when he attended a different St Mary Magdalene. The difference is unmistakeable.

King Charles arrives at church for Sunday service late last month. Picture: Tim Rooke/SIPA/MEGA

Charles pictured at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem, Israel in January 2020. Picture: Neil Hall-Pool/Getty Images

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The King might have been all smiles at church in late January, but Buckingham Palace is today facing down a previously unheard of, never-considered royal scenario – how to keep Crown Inc going in the time of an ageing, cancer-battling monarch who is increasingly rattling around the Palace, stranded and with fewer than ever people to call on.

Even the late Queen’s final years were no preparation for what the monarchy is now facing.

Go back to even February 2022 and, as incredible as it is to consider, at that time the late Queen was still well and truly Queening, making nice with the leaders of even the tiddliest of nations and still resolutely working her way through the reams of tedious paperwork dumped on her via government red box every day.

Queen Elizabeth II was still well and truly Queening in 2022. Picture: Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images

She was still working her way through the reams of tedious paperwork dumped on her via government red box every day. Picture: Chris Jackson/Buckingham Palace via Getty Images

Yes, photos from Her late Majesty’s final years make plain her decline – her frame increasingly frail, her posture ever more stooped, her engagements increasingly curtailed and sails trimmed.

But that was okay, because Queen Elizabeth had a large complement of working members of the royal family to call on to help out. When international trips, demanding multi-stop away days and even State openings of parliament became increasingly unfeasible, there were plenty of HRHs waiting in the wings.

She had not only the then-Prince Charles but also Prince William and Kate, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and for a couple of glorious years, the razzle and/or dazzle of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Sussexes have long since skedaddled. Picture: Eric Charbonneau/Archewell Foundation via Getty Images

Until late 2019, she could also count on all her three other children – Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward – to be willingly shunted off to lands foreign and hot – or just Leeds – to rep the monarchy.

There was also Princess Alexandra, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent who could be spun out to do the even lesser still plaque-unveilings and ribbon cuttings.

Many hands, yadda yadda yadda.

Today, Charles has nothing like this. The number of still-working, in full-bloom-of-health HRHs who are physically up to answering his call to visit a cannery next to a motorway off-ramp in Dundee could easily all fit into a medium-sized SUV.

Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh in Nepal. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The Sussexes have long since skedaddled to try their hand at civvy street and to follow the #content north star. Andrew was felled by his own repulsive taste in friends and swollen ego, even before Her late Majesty had to help him find the (per the Telegraph) $24 million to settle the courtroom claim he had sexually abused a teenager. (He has always denied the allegations).

The blows for Crown Inc have kept coming at quite the clip.

Last year, Kate was diagnosed with cancer, taking not only her off the board but William too, as he prioritised looking after his family over shaking hands in Huddersfield mens’ sheds.

Royal health woes did not end there when Princess Anne ended up in intensive care after a mysterious accident involving a horse. Only last month, the Princess Royal said of the emergency that she had been “jolly lucky” and that she was “very close to not being” “compos mentis”.

Who is left?

Only the industrious Edward and his criminally under-appreciated wife Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh. As dedicated and as safe hands as they both are, both have also passed 60th birthdays, putting them only a handful of years away from the official UK retirement age, and unfortunately, they have the mass appeal of a George and Mildred re-run.

Which leaves Charles.

As he ages and as he battles cancer, he has only very few working members of the royal family left he can rely on. Picture: Ilyas Tayfun Salci/Anadolu via Getty Images

As he ages and as he battles cancer, he has only very few working members of the royal family left he can rely on and delegate to in order to help him shoulder the load.

Just how isolated and alone the King is, at this time in his life, was laid bare in late January when he travelled to Poland to attend the 80th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz.

He was one of the gaggle of crowned European heads who took part in the ceremony. Two by two they walked forward holding candles – King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, King Frederik and Queen Mary of Denmark and King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

And then there was Charles, on his own. (Again, no Camilla.) Throughout the event, he cut a lonely figure, a man left to bear up and to carry on without the supporting cast that the late Queen enjoyed.

King Charles cut a lonely figure during commemorations at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on January 27. Picture: Aaron Chown – Pool/Getty Images

February 5 – this week – was the first anniversary of the Palace’s revelation that Charles has cancer, a disease he is still fighting. The following day, February 6, was a day the late Queen had always marked in private – her Accession Day, that is, the day her father King George VI died in 1952.

The drama and controversies that have befallen Crown Inc of late might have taken a reputational, PR toll, but as the years tick over, for His Majesty, the practical consequences of a painfully understaffed royal family are increasingly obvious.

At least the King seems to be in fine spirits and seems to have a jolly old time of it on a Sunday morning.

And the Queen? Long may she get to reign over the snooze button.

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

Originally published as ‘Painfully hard to ignore’: Grim new King Charles photo exposes royal crisis