Charles III.
AFP
King Charles III, still being treated for cancer, celebrates his 76th birthday on Thursday after a year which according to his son Prince William was “the hardest of (his) life”.
Still very active, the king resumed his commitments at the end of April, two and a half months after the announcement of his illness. “The problem is trying to stop it,” Queen Camilla confided several times. In October, the couple resumed their overseas travels, with a trip to Australia and Samoa for the Commonwealth summit. The king came back “reinvigorated” according to his entourage, despite the numerous commitments of this eleven-day marathon in the Antipodes. He plans to resume a “normal rhythm” of trips abroad next year, according to a source at the palace.
Cancer did not affect his determination to “serve the time I have left to live,” as he declared upon becoming king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022, after having prepared for this role for over 70 years. On Sunday, Charles III presided, pensive in the cold London, over the ceremonies paying tribute to the dead of the wars since 1914, a highlight each year of the royal calendar. The day before, he had traveled with William and Princess Kate, who recently completed chemotherapy, to the Royal Albert Hall for a memorial concert.
No rest for his birthday
After receiving the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa on Tuesday, Charles III hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday in honor of the British film and television industry, before attending the world premiere in the evening from Gladiator II.
And no rest for his birthday, traditionally marked by salvos of cannon fire in the middle of the day. The king is due to inaugurate a center for the redistribution of surplus food on Thursday in south London, as part of a “Coronation food project” launched for his 75th birthday, where he will notably discover, according to the palace, a new industrial freezer .
It’s been a difficult year for the royal family in many ways: communication remains broken with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Charles and William’s millions in income were recently the subject of an incriminating documentary, and the issue of slavery reparations became more pressing at the Commonwealth summit.
In February, the palace announced the king’s cancer a few weeks after prostate surgery, specifying that it was not prostate cancer. In March, two months after a serious abdominal operation, the Princess of Wales, the most popular member of the royal family, announced in turn that she was suffering from cancer, again without further details.
Absent from COP29
The 42-year-old princess delighted her many fans by indicating, on September 9, the end of her chemotherapy, in a video posted on social networks. She has since resumed commitments little by little.
“Honestly, it’s been terrible. This is probably the hardest year of my life,” Prince William, heir to the throne, said on November 7. “I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the situation the way they did,” he said during a trip to South Africa. “But from a family, personal point of view, it was brutal.”
Health remains a constant royal concern. A doctor accompanied the king on his trip to Australia and Samoa last month. On their return, the king and queen spent three days in a relaxation center in Bangalore, India, to “break up” their long journey. A few days later, Camilla, 77, suspended her commitments due to a lung infection. She has just taken them back at a minimum.
And the king, a long-time environmentalist, did not travel to Baku in Azerbaijan for COP29.
(afp)
