The king came back “reinvigorated” according to his entourage, despite the numerous commitments of this 11-day marathon in the Antipodes. He plans to resume a “normal pace” of foreign travel 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 when he became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022, after having prepared for this role for over 70 years.
Salvos of cannon fire
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. 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 surplus food redistribution center 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 of income were recently the subject of an incriminating documentary, and the question of reparations for slavery has become more pressing in 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 announcing the end of her chemotherapy on September 9, 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.
