The King’s ‘rollercoaster year’ filled with family health challenges

The year 2024 looked set to offer a chance for the King and the royal family to settle in amid the aftermath the late Queen’s death and the King’s accession in 2022 and the hectic demands of the coronation in 2023.

But the health blows faced by Charles and the Princess of Wales torpedoed any plans for a run-of-the-mill year.

Joe Little, of Majesty magazine, said: “Nobody saw those things coming and they had a profound impact.

“It has been a rollercoaster year for the King, not just for him, but for his family, and it will have been of great concern to the Queen.

“Nonetheless he has been remarkably active for someone with his condition and given his age.

“He hasn’t really let the treatment hold him back, but I’m sure he hasn’t done anything near as much as he would have liked to have done.”

Mr Little said the nation had got to know Camilla in a different way after she forged ahead with engagements, and took on some of the King’s, in the wake of his health announcement.

“Camilla has really been the star of the show since the time of the King’s diagnosis,” he said.

“She has undertaken a lot of stuff that wouldn’t normally fall on her to do so, such as the distribution of the Maundy money in Worcester just before Easter.

“She’s had quite a busy agenda at times. She has stepped into the breach and has made an extremely good job of it.”

He added: “There will always be a reaction when you say ‘the Queen’, people think ‘Queen Elizabeth II’, and I don’t think that will change any time soon, but I think that people now know and understand Camilla in way that perhaps they didn’t previously, and now realise what an incredible asset she is to the royal family.”

News of the King’s cancer – undisclosed in its form – came on February 5, after it was discovered while he was treated in hospital for an enlarged prostate.

Charles cancelled all face-to-face public duties, and the Prince of Wales, who was caring for Kate after she had major abdominal surgery in January, returned to work, with the Queen and the Princess Royal also holding the fort.

The King, who continued working behind the scenes, resumed his weekly audiences later that month with the then-prime minister, and told Rishi Sunak the public’s “wonderful” get well messages had “reduced me to tears most of the time”.

His nephew Peter Phillips revealed at the time the King was “frustrated that he can’t get on and do everything that he wants to be able to do”.

Mr Phillips added: “But he is very pragmatic, he understands that there’s a period of time that he really needs to focus on himself.”

Sarah, Duchess of York meanwhile was diagnosed with malignant melanoma skin cancer, just months after facing breast cancer. She was later given the all-clear after treatment.

Online conspiracy theories began to escalate about Kate’s health, with the princess in the end delivering a bombshell video message to the nation in March revealing she was undergoing chemotherapy after post-operative tests showed she also had cancer.

Well-wishes flooded in from around the world and the King was said to be  “so proud” of his “beloved daughter-in-law” for her courage in speaking out about her diagnosis.

Charles, who made an appearance at church on Easter Sunday, returned to public-facing duties in April by visiting a cancer centre in London, with his medical team “very encouraged” by the progress he had made.

The first completed portrait of the King since his coronation – by Jonathan Yeo – was unveiled, depicting the monarch bathed in red with, at Charles’s suggestion, a butterfly at his shoulder, symbolising his metamorphosis from prince to King.

The King and Queen attended moving D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations in Portsmouth and Normandy, where they were overcome with emotion as they listened to the sacrifices made by those who fought.

High profile appearances included Trooping the Colour, with Charles in a carriage rather than on horseback because of his illness, and a welcome brief return for Kate, who said in an update that she has “good days and bad days”, but was “not out of the woods yet”.

Some engagements were postponed thanks to the first general election of Charles’s reign, but, unusually in the run-up to a vote, the King and Queen hosted an incoming state visit, for the Emperor of Japan.

Charles made cultural references to Hello Kitty and Pokemon in his banquet speech, telling guests: “The Pokemon phrase, gotta catch ’em all, may resonate with my grandchildren, but for me it is, perhaps, aspirational.”

There was a further health blow for the royal family in late June when the Princess Royal was rushed to hospital after being struck by a horse while out walking on her Gatcombe Park estate.

Anne suffered concussion and mild head injuries and spent five nights in hospital, before she returned gradually to public duties three weeks later, when she was hailed as a “super trooper” by William and Kate.

After a Labour landslide, Charles appointed Sir Keir Starmer as the new Prime Minister, telling him “you must be “utterly exhausted and nearly on your knees”.

And when the England men’s football team lost the Euro 2024 final to Spain, the King urged them to “hold your heads high”.

Duty called when the State Opening of Parliament, straight after a packed whirlwind two-day official tour to the Channel Islands, fell on Camilla’s 77th birthday.

Scotland beckoned for the couple on their summer break, where they were joined by family.

The King made a solo trip to Southport in August to meet survivors of the fatal knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, and the next day sat down privately in Clarence House with the parents of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, who were killed.

Camilla gave an insight into the King’s treatment this week when she opened a new cancer centre in Bath, revealing he was “doing very well”.

And the King and Queen are set to embark on a long haul overseas tour of Australia and Samoa in the autumn, with Charles’s health said to be “heading in a very positive trajectory”.

Meanwhile there was no sign of rapprochement with the Duke of Sussex, who made a transatlantic dash to see his father following his cancer diagnosis to spend just 45 minutes with him.

Harry, who hits his milestone 40th birthday in a week’s time, told an ITV documentary that his determination to fight the tabloids over allegations of phone hacking was a “central piece” in destroying his relationship with his family, and the Sunday Times reported that his legal battle with the Home Office over his security while in the UK has “frustrated” the King.

William and Harry’s estrangement continued, with the brothers said not to have spoken to one another when they attended the funeral of their uncle Lord Fellowes in Norfolk, just days before the 27th anniversary of the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.