Prince William Is ‘Worried’ About ‘Caged Lion’ King Charles: Report

Harry and Charles to reunite?

Prince Harry and King Charles could reunite on Wednesday, when Harry is set to attend a celebration to mark the Invictus Games’ 10^th anniversary at St Paul’s Cathedral, and Charles the first Buckingham Palace garden party of the year, the Sun reports. Both events are set to end around 6pm, and father and son would be two miles apart, raising hopes that a reunion could be made to work—if both parties want it.

They met for 30 minutes in February, just after Charles’ shock cancer diagnosis.

A royal source told the paper: “Harry is normally 5,000 miles away in California, but by happy coincidence on Wednesday they will be just two miles apart. It’s clear he is keen to see his father as he continues his recovery and most people expect another reunion of some kind next week.”

As reported by The Daily Beast, it’s highly unlikely Harry will see Prince William and Kate Middleton. A friend of the couple said they did not want the stress a visit might bring: “William and Catherine felt completely betrayed by Harry’s memoir (Spare). They don’t speak to Harry and Meghan, and they are certainly not about to start when Catherine is at her most vulnerable.”

“Caged lion” Charles ready to work—while William worries

The Sunday Times details a King Charles raring to get back to work, and—to use some non-royal parlance—kick cancer’s ass.

“He has been frustrated, because there is still so much he wants to achieve,” a source close to Charles told the paper of withdrawing from public life following his cancer diagnosis in February. His return to work this past week, visiting with cancer patients in London, was widely seen as a success, making Charles more “relatable.” The source said: “He holds himself to very high standards of public service and genuinely feels he’s letting people and organizations down if he’s not out there doing all those public bits of his formal role.”

Another friend said: “He’s a bloody caged lion, driving everyone round the twist if he’s stuck at home.” Prince William is concerned about his “workaholic” father’s pace. A source close to the prince told the Times: “He wants to make sure his father is balancing his recovery. He knows his dad loves work, but he does worry about him.”

Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/Reuters

Charles’ summer work schedule begins with this Wednesday’s palace garden party, then maybe meeting Harry, then the Chelsea Flower show, after which he hopes to travel to Normandy on June 6 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, likely with William. After this, Charles hopes to attend the wedding of his godson, the Duke of Westminster, followed by Trooping the Color, the Order of the Garter, Royal Ascot, a Japanese state dinner, then hopefully off to Scotland for a series of engagements there. An aide told the Times that Charles’ diary “will be carefully calibrated with enough downtime so that it is not too draining.”

One friend said Charles was determined to cement a legacy. “Some people might think he is trying to pedal twice as hard because he is conscious that time is running ahead of him, but he’s like that any way. His downtime away from public life has been used productively, enabling him to keep thinking about the things he wants to get on with.”

In letters to friends Charles has referred to his “somewhat battered health,” though the correspondence is “full of light” one recipient told the Sunday Times. Charles describes his “determination” to recover.

A friend told the paper: “I hear determination that he doesn’t want to let it slow him down, a pragmatic acceptance of the changes that have had to be made to his program, and an absolute desire to get back to full speed.”

Meanwhile, friends of William say, despite both his wife and father facing serious illness, his “humor is always there” and “he’s been on good form,” especially following Kate’s public announcement of her cancer diagnosis. A source close to the Waleses told the Times: “There is a huge sense of relief that the family have been given the privacy and peace they asked for. He continues to do his best to try to balance supporting his wife, family and father with his public duty as the Prince of Wales. But of course from the start of the year, the focus of his family has been at the forefront of his mind.”

Dominic Lipinski/Pool via Reuters

One friend said of William’s public appearances during the fevered weeks of speculation preceding Kate’s announcement: “I don’t know how he managed to keep doing all of that, knowing what he was going through, while the world was ridiculing and throwing shit at his wife while she was having chemotherapy. That speaks to his character, grit and determination to go out there and do the job that is expected of him. He has taken most of it on the chin and got on with it.”

A friend of Charles and Queen Camilla told the Times that the royals had been somewhat capsized by Charles and Kate Middleton’s double cancer diagnoses. “This has been the year that nobody could have predicted in any way. Just when you think royal life gets predictable, they both have a crown on their heads, the family is settling into a rhythm, the second son is not letting off too many bombs—and then suddenly an absolute explosion happens to throw up all of your plans. That family just has more drama than an episode of (popular British soap opera) EastEnders.”

A hug for Charles

Charles’ emphatic return to public life as he receives treatment for cancer continued Friday when he was given a big warm hug of greeting by his niece Zara Tindall, Princess Anne’s daughter.

Charles and Zara were both attending the Royal Windsor Horse Show, the Telegraph reported, with the royal group made up of Lord Soames, comedian Rory Bremner, Jackie Stewart, the former racing driver, and Ben Wallace, the former British defense secretary.

On Tuesday, Charles marked his return to duties with a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre, where he met and spoke with other cancer patients, hoping to emphasize the ability to carry on with life while being treated for cancer. To one patient due to have treatment later in the day, Charles said: “I know the feeling.”

A friend of Charles told The Daily Beast of his return to work: “He was so happy to be back. You could see the satisfaction was written all over his face. It is what he was literally born to do, after all.”

Victoria Jones/Pool via Reuters

Another source, a former Buckingham Palace staffer who worked for the king, said, “This (the time since his cancer diagnosis) must have been the hardest time of his life. I’m sure he will be exhausted on one level, but absolutely reinvigorated and fired up on another.”

On Wednesday, Charles was presented with the Coronation Roll at Buckingham Palace, which he examined with Queen Camilla. The roll is an official record of Charles’ coronation ceremony on May 6, 2023. The original coronation roll was made for the coronation of Edward II and Queen Isabella in 1308.

Home repairs

Could the king’s return to work be related to what looks very like a new push to get Prince Andrew out of the palatial home, Royal Lodge, which he shares with Fergie?

A story in the Mirror today dramatically alleges Royal Lodge “appears to be crumbling and desperately in need of repair,” and says this could breathe fresh life into the king’s well-known ambition to get Andrew out of the 30-room, 90-acre property and give it to his son, William.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Their pictorial evidence seems to be restricted to one photo of a part of an external wall where a little bit of plaster seems to have come off.

Whoever wants Andrew to move may have to try harder than that if the pretext is dereliction of the property. The Royalist predicts that Andrew, who has a cast iron lease on the property with the Crown Estate and plenty of rich friends only too happy to lend a hand, isn’t going anywhere.

The bigger question: why on earth does Charles’ camp, having lost this argument once, want to have it again?

How Camilla fast-tracked to Queen, not Queen Consort

The plan was that Camilla would be known as Queen Consort after the death of Queen Elizabeth, but as the coronation of King Charles approached some within Camilla’s office moved to have her termed “Queen” asap, a detailed report in the U.K. Times reveals.

Camilla was reportedly “relaxed either way,” the paper says. On the change side were those who thought the “consort” add-on cumbersome and setting a bad historical precedent, but in the king’s office there was worry about how the public would react to just calling her queen.

A royal source told the paper: “There was never a fixed timeline for when or if this would happen and there were certainly differing views among courtiers within the household. Above all the Queen (Camilla) was relaxed either way and felt it would happen organically.”

Toby Melville/Reuters

The paper charts Camilla’s title-transitions from Princess Consort to Her Royal Highness (not Her Majesty), then Princess, before Queen Elizabeth—during her Platinum Jubilee—gave her blessing for Camilla to be known as Queen Consort. As time went on, “Consort” began to be seen as unnecessary.

A source told the Times: “In the past, previous female consorts have all been Queen Consorts but were only ever known as Queen. To keep the word consort on all official statements might set a precedent that could impact future generations.”

“In the end when some corners of the media began to call for the word ‘consort’ to be dropped it was felt that probably that decision could be taken,” a source added. “Much like everything else with the queen there was a huge amount of thinking it over—on the one hand this, on the other hand that. But when it happened it landed very naturally.”

Another source told the Times that Camilla “remains a Consort in role but not in title.” It really is all in a name.

Bye bye

King Charles has taken on around 300 new charity affiliations—although a shortage of working royals means 200 organizations will lose their royal associations, the Telegraph reports. The move follows a review of more than 1,000 patronages and presidencies held by Charles and Queen Camilla and those previously held by Queen Elizabeth II, the paper said, with Buckingham Palace sources “insisting” the royals had kept as many patronages as possible.

Royal reunions

The king and Zara were not the only royals at the Windsor Horse Show. Witness this photo of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, embracing her daughter Lady Louise Windsor.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Louise keeps a low public profile. She is currently a student at St Andrews university in Scotland, where, as all royal fans know, Kate and William met.

This week in royal history

May 6 marks both the wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, while Prince Archie, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son, was born on this day in 2019. So, happy 5^th birthday to Archie for tomorrow!

Toby Melville/Pool/Reuters

Unanswered questions

Will Harry and Charles get together this coming week? Will Charles keep to his busy summer of engagements?