Queen Camilla has spoken publicly for the first time about how difficult it was to initially keep her husband King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis private. Buckingham Palace revealed in February 2024 that the British monarch was receiving treatment for cancer, the diagnosis of which they have never specified —nor the type of treatment he has undergone—. Just one week before that announcement, she had to carry out one of her engagements, and on that occasion, it hit very close to home: chatting with cancer patients while the world was still unaware of the monarch’s illness.
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On January 31, 2024, one week before Buckingham announced on February 5, 2024, that Charles III had cancer —shortly before, he had undergone hospital surgery for a benign prostate enlargement—, Queen Camilla inaugurated a cancer support center for the Maggie’s charity at the Royal Free Hospital in London. It was an engagement where she had to share moments and conversations with patients and their families and, as she has now revealed, a meeting where she found it “difficult” not to talk about her husband’s illness.
“I remember visiting a Maggie’s center just after the King was diagnosed with the illness. Nobody could say anything at the time; it was quite difficult,” Camilla tells Laura Lee, Maggie’s chief executive, in a video published by the charity this Wednesday to mark its 30th anniversary. Maggie’s offers free psychological, emotional, and practical support to people with cancer, as well as their family and friends, from 27 centers across the UK. Queen Camilla, president of this organization since November 2008, has visited 18 of these centers, and some of them on more than one occasion, according to the organization’s website.
“I was about to say something, but I felt it wasn’t the right time. I looked at all the people suffering and their families, and I think that made me understand even better the importance of these places. I really wanted to blurt it out, but obviously, I couldn’t,” Camilla adds in the video also shared on the British royal family’s social media. She also admits that her conversations were different then. “I was almost interrogating them,” she explains, though she clarifies that she tried not to pry too much. “Normally, when I walked in, I would just talk to them. But it was much deeper.”
And for the first time, the illness was something she was dealing with closely. “It had never had repercussions at home, and suddenly your husband is diagnosed with the illness and you think: ‘My goodness, I’ve been talking to all these people, and now I’m the one who has to help take care of my poor husband and try to understand everything’,” she admits. In the video, filmed at Clarence House (the King and Queen’s residence in London), she also talks about Charles III’s determination to continue working. “Look at my husband: nothing stopped him,” she states. And she explains what he said when he learned of his diagnosis: “He simply said: ‘This is my way: I’m going to face it.’”
Laura Lee, for her part, points out that the revelation that both Charles III and his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton —who has already announced she is in remission— had received cancer treatment, as well as their willingness to speak publicly about coping with the illness, have had an enormous positive impact on other people suffering from it. “The King’s openness about his diagnosis has undoubtedly helped others to open up too; and hearing now the Queen’s —totally understandable and natural— reaction as a wife highlights how important it is for family and friends to also receive the support they need,” she states in the video.
Charles III, who resumed his public engagements about three months after his illness was announced, continues to receive treatment, but last December he noted that, thanks to an early diagnosis, effective intervention, and 10 months of treatment following his doctors’ advice, the intensity of the treatment could be reduced this year. “I have learned something that particularly concerns me,” the King said in his recorded message for the special program Stand Up To Cancer (Confront Cancer). “At least nine million people in our country are not up to date with the cancer screening tests available to them. That means nine million missed opportunities for early diagnosis,” Charles III stressed. “And early diagnosis, quite simply, saves lives,” he warned in an address that was not the first time he had spoken publicly about his illness.