A certain relief the day after the shock caused by the announcement of Charles III’s cancer: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak publicly commented that “the disease has been caught in time”, which agrees with the monarch’s own gratitude to the doctors for his “quick intervention.”
Apart from that, no revelation about what kind of ailment he is suffering from and the kind of treatment (immunological, radiotherapy, chemotherapy…?). Although the mere fact that Carlos reported what is happening to him is extraordinary transparency compared to his predecessors. George VI, his grandfather, was not even told – neither by the doctors nor the family – that he suffered from lung cancer, from which he never recovered and died a year after it was diagnosed, giving way to second Elizabethan era.
The withering visit of Enrique, who got on a plane in Los Angeles a few hours after his father gave him the news by phone, confirms that things are serious, even though he was caught in time. The Duke of Sussex arrived in a Range Rover at the private terminal of the Californian airport, he traveled at night and in the morning he was picked up by another identical vehicle at Heathrow, where photographers were waiting for him. He went straight to Clarence House, the royal residence next to Buckingham Palace, the home of Charles and Camilla when they spend the night in London. Shortly afterwards, the king and queen left by helicopter for Sandringham.
Although Harry’s relations with his father had improved somewhat in recent months, they have never returned to normal since the duke went to California and criticized his family in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a Netflix documentary and a book by memories. Amid speculation about a possible parent-child reconciliation, it seems very difficult for there to be one between brothers, without a face-to-face meeting appearing on the agenda for the next few days.
William resumes his public appearances today, with an honors ceremony at Windsor Castle (next to his residence) and a fundraising event for the London ambulance service, and from now on he will be observed more closer than ever, a preview of what it will be like when it is his turn to access the throne. The last two weeks he has been inactive at an official level, accompanying his wife Catalina (fifteen days in the hospital for an unspecified “abdominal intervention” that has given rise to all kinds of speculation) and his three children.
The absence of the Princess of Wales and the king, who will continue working in his office but without public appearances, has left the Windsors short of staff. Guillermo is going to assume some of the functions that would have corresponded to his father, but in moderation (next week the children have school holidays and he will also take it off). On the other hand, Camilla, despite her husband’s cancer, will continue at the usual pace, and the rest of the events will fall on Princess Anne and Prince Edward, with Andrés completely sidelined by his sexual scandals.
Last year alone, Carlos III appeared in almost five hundred events (inaugurations, receptions, various ceremonies…) and contact with people is the aspect of his job that he likes the most, where he feels liberated and is most talkative. The cancellation of foreign trips he had planned for the coming months to Australia and Canada, as well as to Samoa for a meeting of Commonwealth heads of state, seems inevitable. It will depend on how he feels, and on doctors’ advice, whether the weekly meetings with Prime Minister Sunak are in person or by videoconference.
Charles III, a Shakespearean character somewhere between comedy and drama, came to the throne when most people have already retired, and he was enjoying it before this setback. His popularity has increased (half of Britons think he is doing a good job, while only 9% do not), as confirmed by the flowers laid to wish him a speedy recovery both at Buckingham Palace and on the streets of Bombay and other corners of the old empire. Cancer is an unwelcome visitor that never arrives at a good time for anyone.
