King Charles is causing some uneasiness among royal watchers over a troubling confession he recently made about his health.
While attending the Maundy Thursday service at Durham Cathedral with Queen Camilla on April 17, the king made a strange comment to a fan who told him that he was looking well.
After the well-wisher told Charles he looked to be in good health, the 76-year-old monarch told her, “it’s all smoke and mirrors,” according to a report from Hello!
The fan who had the exchange with Charles, identified as a woman named Pat Johnson, recounted the conversation to the outlet, revealing that Charles approached her to meet her Corgi pup, whom she was holding in her arms.
“He asked me if she was friendly and he asked me her name. I said she was named after the late Queen,” said Johnson, who named her Corgi “Lilibet” in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s nickname.
“I said he looked very well and he said, ‘You are very kind, it’s all smoke and mirrors,'” Johnson recalled.
The unsettling comment from Charles comes in the midst of his ongoing cancer treatment, after he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in January 2024.
He was briefly admitted to the hospital over “temporary side effects” from his routine cancer treatments, though he is said to have recovered from the adverse reaction quickly.
The king was back to his royal engagements earlier this month, beginning with a visit to Italy, where he and Camilla appeared to be in good spirits as they celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary.