Some insiders at Buckingham Palace—and the king’s wife—are concerned by King Charles III’s packed schedule, fearing that his insistence on maintaining a full program of events, including a grueling overseas tour to Australia planned for October, is harming his chances of making a full recovery in his cancer battle.
Their concerns were brought into sharp focus this week when Charles took part in a traditional Balmoral welcoming ceremony Monday, before flying hundreds of miles the next day for an “intense” visit to Southport, a northern English town rocked by riots following the appalling murder there of three very young children attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class there.
The king then travelled to London the next day, Wednesday, for a private meeting with the bereaved families of the three children. No details have been released of the meeting save that it occurred at the king’s London home, Clarence House.
He is thought to have then received cancer treatment in London and helicoptered back to Balmoral on Thursday.
Undeniably, visiting Southport, where riots following the stabbing were fueled by racist misinformation as to the identity of the killer, was an appropriate and much-appreciated gesture by the monarch to console and unify a scarred community. Indeed, Charles had been criticized in some quarters for not going there sooner.
While the overall mood at Buckingham Palace is highly supportive of the course of action which is being driven by “the Boss,” dissenting voices and those urging the king to be more careful so as not to impede his recovery are notable.
Chief among them is Queen Camilla. A friend of Camilla’s told the Daily Beast: “Camilla would have been deeply unhappy that having only begun his holiday on Monday, he broke it off on Tuesday to do an incredibly intense engagement. Of course, she understands it was very important and there is no way she would try to tell Charles what to do, but it seems to be extraordinary timing. She wants him to slow down, she is afraid he is working too hard, and that’s before you even get to the Australia tour.”
King Charles shakes hands with a man, as he meets with people affected by and family members of the victims of a mass stabbing attack, during a community visit, in Southport, Britain, August 20, 2024.
Temilade Adelaja/Reuters
Another source said: “I think there has been a lot of positive spin about the king doing well, getting back to work and so on. But, you know, he has cancer. He is not well. He looked frail in Southport on Tuesday in my opinion. You only have to look at photographs from now compared to a year ago and it’s obvious; he has lost a lot of weight and aged considerably. Camilla has been telling him to take a break but he is a workaholic, he won’t listen.”
Camilla has voiced her concern publicly telling well-wishers she wants Charles to “behave” and “slow down,” but her semi-jocular tone on these occasions masks real concern in private about her husband’s reluctance to prioritize his convalescence.
It has been an ongoing concern for Camilla. One friend told the Daily Beast earlier this year: “She has been trying to encourage him to slow down. Of course, he wants to keep cracking on, but she is afraid that doing too much could set him back.”
Queen Elizabeth meets residents of the Grenfell Tower block near the scene of the fire that destroyed the block, in north Kensington, West London, Britain June 16, 2017.
Hannah McKay/Reuters
Some friends have also been spooked by persistent rumors that the real reason Charles wants Prince Andrew out of Royal Lodge is so that it can be given to Camilla as a dowager house after his death.
A friend of the king’s however defended the monarch’s decision to head south for the engagements this week, saying, “There is not really much point being king if you’re not going to act like a king. I think the reference point here was the Grenfell fire [when a London housing block caught fire with many deaths]. Queen Elizabeth’s visit was an important gesture to the community. Charles is and always has been a workaholic. This is his destiny. If he put his feet up at Balmoral and sat around feeling sorry for himself his morale would crumble and that’s what really matters. Whatever time remains to him will be spent doing the job to the best of his ability.”
Buckingham Palace did not return a request for comment.
