There’s no doubt that 2024 has turned out to be a difficult and emotional year for the royals, and the shock cancer diagnosis received by both King Charles and the Princess of Wales would have been deeply distressing for the late Queen Elizabeth. “It was a double whammy of bad news affecting two of those closest to her, so it would have upset her terribly had she still been alive,” royal commentator Duncan Larcombe tells OK!.
Charles’ cancer was discovered less than a year after his coronation, during an unrelated procedure for an enlarged prostate. Chemotherapy treatment followed, which he later revealed caused the loss of his sense of taste.
“The Queen would have been dismayed because her son had really hit the ground running as King. He was enjoying lots of public walkabouts and handshakes, and everything was going well. Then the diagnosis came as a bolt from the blue and completely derailed everything,” says Duncan.
After returning to light duties in late April, Charles was out in force for June’s Trooping the Colour spectacular, also known as the King’s Birthday Parade. And though he may have looked a little older and more weary than usual, he still cut an imposing figure in full ceremonial uniform of the Irish Guards, for what was his biggest engagement since being diagnosed.
Much to the nation’s joy, he was also joined for the grand finale on the Buckingham Palace balcony by his “darling daughter-in-law” Kate, who was making her first official appearance in months after announcing she had cancer in March.
