After briefly pausing in-person engagements last spring, His Majesty resumed his royal schedule and is set to undertake his first state visit of 2025 this month.
This high-profile trip to Italy with Queen Camilla comes just a few weeks after he spent a short period of time in hospital on 27th March. Buckingham Palace confirmed at the time that King Charles had experienced temporary side effects during his ongoing cancer treatment.
The Palace cancelled his public engagements the following day and a source described this as the “most minor bump” in a road that’s “heading in the right direction”. Now royal expert Phil Dampier has suggested that King Charles should “cut down his workload”.
Speaking to The Sun, Phil claimed that one person might be able to convince the hard-working monarch – Queen Camilla. He believes that her influence might be key in getting King Charles to “pace himself” a little more.
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“King Charles has always worked hard and is renowned for burning midnight oil and even falling asleep at his desk working so many hours. But those days must be a thing of the past and it’s vital he looks after his health and cuts down his workload,” he said.
Phil continued, “He needs to pace himself – which the Queen has said he is hopeless at doing – and she is probably the only person he will listen to.”
Whether or not she succeeds, Queen Camilla revealed last year that King Charles wasn’t keen on taking things a little slower. At the second annual Queen’s Reading Room Festival she told author Lee Child that her husband was “doing fine”, but “won’t slow down” and won’t “do what he’s told”.
(Image credit: Photo by Aaron Chown – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
It seems that she has reportedly been able to advise him to change some of his ways, though. The King famously prefers to skip lunch so he can work through, but The Mail on Sunday alleged last October that he has started to eat something “on the orders of his wife, aides and doctors”.
‘With some reluctance, he now has something to eat at lunchtime – a snack, really. He now eats half an avocado to sustain him through the day. It’s important, particularly if you have got an illness,” an insider claimed.
An avocado is one of Queen Camilla’s favourite snacks too and pausing to eat some form of lunch means King Charles likely has more of a break from his work. As well as possibly encouraging him to “slow down”, Her Majesty has been a pillar of strength for him in recent months, personally and professionally.
(Image credit: Photo Toby Melville – Pool via Samir Hussein/WireImage via Getty)
She took on more engagements after his diagnosis was announced and was a reassuring presence for the public. Royal author and correspondent, Katie Nicholl recently told OK! that Queen Camilla can expertly navigate tough times like this.
Katie said, “There is clearly a rod of steel that runs through her. She is so strong, so resilient. She also has a great sense of herself and an ability to overcome all sorts of adversity. Those are the qualities you really see in her when the going gets tough – and it did get tough last year.”
“Not only was she having to care for King Charles, but she also had to stand in for him and carry out engagements on his behalf. And she had to reassure the public that their King was okay,” the expert added.
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