Illness, scandal and discord leave the British royal family looking exhausted

King Charles is currently undergoing cancer treatment (file photo)

London:

King Charles will make his first public appearance at a royal event since his cancer diagnosis on Sunday, but the possible absence of son Prince William and heir wife Kate will underscore the extent of the royal family’s decline.

Buckingham Palace said the 75-year-old monarch will attend a traditional Easter Sunday church service at Windsor Castle with his wife, Queen Camilla, one of the annual events that all senior royals usually attend.

However, William, Kate and their children George, 10, Charlotte, 8, and Louis, 5, will not attend, as the Princess of Wales revealed last week that she had started preventative cancer treatment after abdominal surgery in January Chemotherapy.

“King Charles did want a streamlined monarchy when he came to the throne, but he never expected it to be as streamlined as it is now,” said Erin Hill, senior royal editor at People magazine. “For the royal family, “It’s definitely a complicated time.”

Charles wants a “lean” agency aimed at countering accusations that it is bloated and that distant relatives are living off taxpayer aid.

But now there are huge holes in his close circle – most notably, his younger son Prince Harry, 39, and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, left the United States three years ago.

Meanwhile, Charles’s brother Prince Andrew, 64, was banished from public life in 2019 over his friendship with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

this is not a good idea

Princess Anne, the king’s sister, said in an interview last year: “Well, I think ‘skinny’ was said in the context of more people around and it seemed like a reasonable comment.”

“I have to say, from where I stand, that doesn’t sound like a good idea. I’m not really sure… what else we can do.”

Of the remaining officially working royals – those who carry out duties for the king, such as opening new buildings, conferring honours, and meeting foreign dignitaries – many are now from the late Queen Elizabeth’s generation.

Princess Alexandra, 87, her cousin and old friend, rarely appears in public these days, while Elizabeth’s other cousins, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, are 88 and Gloucester respectively. 79 years old.

Princess Anne is often rated as the most hard-working royal, but she herself will be celebrating her 74th birthday this year. Her son, Peter Phillips, said she may have been working a lot harder than she expected this week.

“She’s still doing overseas trips and turning around within 24 hours, which is quite difficult for most people… but to be able to do that when you’re in your 70s is pretty remarkable,” he told Sky News Australia.

“There is certainly short-term pressure on some members of the household to continue going out,” he said. In addition to his mother, he cited the contributions of Camilla and Charles’ brother Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

Royal biographer Claudia Joseph said that while Camilla and William have done a great job in Charles’ absence, it hasn’t been easy.

“Personally, it would be terrible for the royal family,” she said. “Obviously, on a practical level, that makes things difficult.”

While polls show that most Britons still generally support the monarchy, they also show that the majority is shrinking, with a growing gap between enthusiastic older people and apathetic younger generations.

Besides William and Kate, the next youngest working royals are Edward, who turns 60 this month, and Sophie, who will reach the same milestone next year.

It will be at least a decade before William and Kate’s children swell the ranks.

Royal author Tina Brown said the royal family does look very streamlined, causing “unmanageable pressure” on William and Kate.

“Catherine is the most popular royal after William,” she wrote in The New York Times this week. “The future of the monarchy hangs on a thread, and that thread is her.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)