King Charles III celebrated his 77th birthday today, appearing motivated to continue working despite continuous cancer treatment.
To commemorate the event, gun salutes were fired in London, and the king opened a rail depot in South Wales in the rain, according to AFP.
Charles also attended a reception with Queen Camilla to celebrate Cyfarthfa Castle’s 200th anniversary, which is regarded as a Welsh historical jewel.
Charles has kept a somewhat busy schedule of royal activities since his return to public life in February 2024, when he announced his diagnosis with an unidentified kind of cancer.
He resumed public appearances a few months later with a visit to a London cancer treatment center, where he met other patients and discussed the “shock” of receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Since then, he has maintained a steady stream of royal duties, including hosting US President Donald Trump’s pomp-filled state visit to Windsor Castle in September.
‘Living With Cancer’
While the majority of his engagements are in the United Kingdom, Charles has undertaken some international excursions.
Last month, the royal couple went to the Vatican, where Charles led a historic joint prayer session with Pope Leo XIV.
“They say ‘he’s living with cancer.'” They don’t say anything else. “We can’t know anything more than that,” remarked royal author Robert Jobson.
“It’s not the same as he is in remission.” But I think he’s doing an excellent job,” he said, adding that he could not be expected to be “100 percent fit.”
Charles has a reputation for being a workaholic who was ready to return to work as soon as possible.
However, some habits have changed: the monarch was reputedly convinced to break a lifelong practice and now eats lunch.
Camilla, speaking to the BBC while visiting the Vatican, stated that Charles enjoyed his work and that it “keeps him going”.
“If you’ve been sick and are recovering, you’re improving, and now he wants to do more and more. That’s the problem,” she explained.
Andrew’s Headache
Charles’ return to work may have gone well, but managing other members of what the late Queen Elizabeth II dubbed “the firm” has been difficult.
Already embroiled in a widely publicized feud with his younger son Harry, he has faced additional scrutiny regarding his brother Andrew.
Charles stripped Andrew of his prince title last month in an attempt to mitigate the monarchy’s fallout from his brother’s links to convicted US sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
As part of the punishment, Andrew was told he could no longer live in his luxurious home on the royal family’s Windsor estate, west of London.
However, with Epstein-related material still being revealed and investigated in the United States, Andrew’s title loss is unlikely to be the end of the matter.
While Charles continues his treatment, other members of the family gain prominence.
Prince William, the heir and future king, paid his first visit to Brazil this month for his annual Earthshot Prize, which awards £1 million ($1.3 million) to five pioneering projects addressing environmental issues.
He, like his father, is a passionate environmentalist who has expressed a desire to devote time to his family, which includes wife Catherine and children George, 12, Charlotte, 10, and Louis, seven.
However, in a recent interview, he stated that “change is on my agenda”.
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