(London) King Charles III’s cancer was “detected early”, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured Tuesday, but after only 17 months on the throne, the monarch will be absent from public life for an indefinite period.
Well wishes have poured in from around the world and his youngest son Harry, based in California, has announced his imminent return to the UK to visit his father, despite the notorious tensions. The announcement Monday evening of the king’s illness caused a shock in the United Kingdom.
“Luckily (the cancer) was detected early and everyone wishes him to receive the treatment he needs and make a full recovery,” Rishi Sunak told the BBC.
“I am of course in regular contact with (the king) and I will continue to communicate with him as usual,” added the conservative leader who speaks every week with the king.
The “form of cancer” from which Charles III suffered was not specified. We know that the disease was detected during a recent operation for benign prostatic hypertrophy, but that it is not prostate cancer.
He began treatment on Monday in London, and spent the night at his home in Clarence House, according to British media.
The sovereign assured that he was “very optimistic” about his treatment and added that he would continue to carry out “state affairs and administrative tasks”, linked to his role as head of state of 15 countries, including the Kingdom -United.
But while he was already resting due to his prostate operation at the end of January, his absence from public life promises to be longer than expected, stopping the momentum of a king who waited until he was 73 to ascend on the throne and had been particularly active since then, making numerous field visits and trips abroad.
Kate recovering
“We are shocked because the king really started strong, he went to France, to Germany, and we hoped that it would be like this for a long time,” explains Sue Hazell to AFP, visiting the north of England with her husband, in front of Buckingham Palace.
Gill Armstrong, 71, hopes for a quick recovery: “He has done a good job since he became king, he will be hard to replace.”
The illness plunges the monarchy back into uncertainty a year and a half after the considerable shock caused by the death of the ultra-popular Elizabeth II, at the age of 96, and while the princely couple themselves are going through a difficult period.
A key figure in the monarchy, Kate, the wife of Prince William, is in a long convalescence after a mysterious abdominal operation and has not appeared since Christmas. His return is not planned before Easter, at the end of March.
It is therefore above all up to Queen Camilla, 76 years old, and William, 41 years old, who must resume his activities on Wednesday after remaining at his wife’s bedside in recent days, to publicly represent the monarchy.
Reconciliation?
Without delay, Prince Harry, youngest son of Charles, announced that he was going to see his father, raising new hopes of reconciliation between the Duke of Sussex, who slammed the door in 2020, and the rest of the family, especially his brother.
According to British media, he is expected in London on Tuesday and will come alone, without his wife Meghan or their two children, Archie and Lilibet, as during the coronation last May.
As with his operation for a benign prostate problem, Charles III chose not to hide his illness, contrasting with the secrecy surrounding the health of previous sovereigns. The palace, however, remained short of details.
In the event of his inability to fulfill his constitutional functions, the king can be replaced by two “state councilors” such as William, Camilla, his sister Anne or his brother Edward. In the longer term, a regency could be decided to entrust most of the tasks to William, but even at the end of her life, Elizabeth II refused to do so.
An abdication seems even less likely for a sovereign who, like his mother, promised “a life of service”.