King Charles reappeared this Sunday at a public event for the first time since announcing his cancer diagnosis on February 5. Aboard his Bentley limousine, the monarch attended the Easter mass with Queen Camilla in the St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the same one where Harry and Meghan got married. Carlos smiled and greeted the audience effusively upon his arrival at the chapel at 10:45 local time (11:45 in Spain).
In a brief statement, Buckingham Palace said that the king’s presence at the Easter Sunday mass is “a very encouraging sign of how the treatment is progressing.” The same statement warns that “the road ahead looks positive” and recognizes that the monarch has his sights set “on the summer.” The king’s future public appearances, the note concludes, will be subject “to medical advice and at a close time” on the calendar.
The act – renamed as Easter Lite– has had a reduced number of guests to accommodate the condition of the king, who is receiving unspecified treatment. Carlos and Camila sat separately of the rest of the participants in the mass, with many empty benches due to the absence of members of the royal family such as William and Kate, who spend their holidays at Amner Hall with their children George, Charlotte and Louis.
The monarch, wearing a long coat and blue tie, posed smiling for several minutes at the door of the chapel and gestured effusively to the public. Camila, in dark green, wrapped him up inside the temple. The ceremony was in any case private and the British had to console themselves on the BBC with the Sunday mass officiated by Archbishop Justin Welby from Canterbury Cathedral.
In the absence of William and Kate, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Edward and Sophie, They occupied the benches reserved for the royal family.
Carlos even responded personally from the stairs to the cry of “Happy Easter! (Happy Easter!)” launched by one of those gathered at the entrance of the chapel. “For you too!”, replied the monarch, pointing with his finger. Among those present, the general comment was healthy appearance and the good state of the monarch.
Prince Andrew also attended the ceremony, as did Sarah Ferguson, although his presence was somewhat more discreet than during the tribute to King Constantine in which he led the royal family’s entourage.
The religious ceremony lasted for an hour. Carlos has decided to be absent from the family lunch that followed, following the medical advice to minimize contact with any possible infection.
The king occupied the “sovereign’s seat” within the chapel, separate from the rest of the royal family. At the end of the ceremony, Charles decided to approach the crowd gathered at Windsor Castle with Camilla and shook hands with dozens of royal fans.
A convalescent king
Buckingham Palace has specified that the king’s “soft” return does not mean his immediate return to public events, but rather is a signal to reaffirm his presence before the British, days after expressing his “sadness” for not being able to attend the Maundy Thursday ceremony at Worcester Cathedral.
The king has in fact been absent from public events since 2024 began, as a result of the prostate enlargement operation to which he was subjected in mid-January at The London, the same private hospital where Kate Middleton underwent abdominal surgery.
Days later after the diagnosis was made public, the monarch was photographed at a private mass near the royal residence of Sandringham. During his convalescence he has been photographed on numerous occasions leaving or entering Windsor Castle and his official residence in London, Clarence House.
The Royal Family has not set a calendar for Carlos’ official return in representative functions, although he continues to work behind closed doors and even communicates weekly with the “premier” Rishi Sunak. Charles and Kate Middleton’s names were recently removed from the list of participants in the Ministry of Defence’s Trooping the Color parade, in a sign that the recovery of both is going to be long.
The 75-year-old king’s return to “normality” could be delayed until the summer, with the goal set for the Commonwealth of Nations summit in Samoa in mid-October as his possible return to the international stage.
The return of Kate Middleton, who two weeks ago announced her own diagnosis of an unspecified cancer, is more up in the air. The Princess of Wales expressed her desire to return to work as soon as her treatment allows, but she specified that her family and her health will be her priorities in the coming months.
The isolation of the princess
For now, Kate Middleton will continue until mid-April with Prince William and her three children (George, Charlotte and Louis) at the residence. Anmer Hall, in Norfolk. A friend close to the family told The Times that the Princess of Wales decided to “isolate herself from the world in order to move forward”, after announcing her diagnosis of an unspecified cancer and her treatment with preventive chemotherapy.
Kate wanted to make the announcement to coincide with her children’s holidays to relieve the pressure on them at Lambrook School in Berkshire. The family has a sentimental connection to Anmer Hall, a stone’s throw from the royal residence of Sandringhamfor the years they lived there after George’s birth, with Guillermo serving as a volunteer air ambulance pilot.
Despite the temporary refuge in the British countryside, the princes decided to post their rewound monthly, this time dedicated to the intense and turbulent March. Apart from Kate’s own message, the social media account reviews William’s presence at various public events: from Commonwealth Day to the awards in honor of Diana, including his visit to Wales on the day Saint David or his visit to Sheffield, where the heir to the Crown reserved a seat for his wife when he remembered his desire to return to action and his commitment to social causes.