All throughout spring, King Charles has been making headlines for matters related to his health. He was briefly hospitalized in late March after experiencing temporary side effects related to his ongoing cancer treatment; there was also a bit of an uproar surrounding a revelatory speech the king gave in early May at Buckingham Palace about what buoys him during the “darkest moments” of his illness. Finally—and more explosively—there was the interview Prince Harry gave to the BBC last week in which he shared, “I don’t know how much longer my father has.” (This wasn’t necessarily a status update on the king’s cancer battle, but more a comment on Harry’s current lack of communication with his family—but still.)
I’m a Royal Reporter and I Noticed Something Super Striking About King Charles’s *Seven* Appearances This Week
It was both a surprise and delight
Published May 9, 2025
•3:22pm
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As someone who finds herself intensely dialed in to the goings-on of King Charles, but also the rest of the royal fam (Prince William, Kate Middleton and Duchess Sophie all included), my own worries about His Majesty’s health were mounting. Then, the VE Day celebrations began.
It goes without saying that there’s no real way to assess how the king is actually feeling and there are important conversations to be had about what it means for anyone to “look sick” while battling an intense illness such as cancer. (Elizabeth Holmes, author of HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style, led an important conversation on the matter over at her Substack last year.)
Still, I was struck that the 80th anniversary of VE Day celebrations brought us, count ‘em, seven appearances by King Charles and all back to back. This speaks not only to his stamina, but also recent comments made that the monarch, 76, quite dutifully refuses to slow down. (On a recent tour of Italy in April, Queen Camilla was asked if her husband might ever consider lightening his royal workload. Her retort? “Dream on,” according to People.)
But in all seriousness, just look at the king’s range of royal engagements this week. He gave a moving royal salute on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on Monday; then, alongside Queen Camilla, the pair revealed a new set of portraits to mark the two-year anniversary of their coronation on Tuesday. He took a boat ride to check out the Tideway Project—colloquially called London’s “Super Sewer” on Wednesday, then hosted the first royal garden party of the season later that same day.
There’s more! The king ducked out to attend David Attenborough’s latest film’s premiere, a black tie event, also this week. Then, on May 8, he attended a service at Westminster Abbey to officially honor the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945 before finally—and impressively—delivering a rousing speech with nods to his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at the VE Day concert, an occasion that saw many a royal turn out.
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Back to Camilla’s commentary, but also that of Prince Harry, who shed light in Spare about his father’s penchant for work. (“Pa had always been a worker. He believed in work. Everyone must work, he often said...More than once we discovered him, face on the desk, fast asleep. We’d shake his shoulders and up he’d bob, a piece of paper stuck to his forehead,” Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir.) Was Charles always set to make seven royal appearances this week?
While vague descriptions of a week full of VE Day events were given, the royal diary—especially as it relates to the calendar of the king—stayed clear. A robust schedule neither confirms or denies exactly how the king is feeling these days and, as I mentioned above, how the monarch looks has little to do with the status of his health. (We also still don’t know exactly what type of cancer he’s fighting.) But this week felt like a win-win for both Charles and royal watchers: The king clearly felt well enough to show up and it was a surprise and delight to see him over and over again.
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That said, like Camilla, I’m hopeful that he continues to take it easy and prioritize rest when he can. But as the daughter of a workaholic father, I also know: Work, especially when it’s deeply meaningful as the VE Day celebrations certainly were, is a motivator. But if anyone deserves a weekend to put his feet up, it’s Charles, don’t you think?
