{"id":23789,"date":"2025-04-16T04:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T04:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/23789\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T04:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T04:10:11","slug":"royals-are-preparing-for-prince-william-to-be-king-earlier-than-expected-after-charless-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/23789\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Are Preparing for Prince William to Be King “Earlier Than Expected\u201d After Charles\u2019s Scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.”<\/p>\n

Last week, to wrap up a four-day state visit to Italy alongside wife Queen Camilla, King Charles III planted a tree. Waving his shovel after the job was done, he poignantly quipped<\/a>, \u201cWell, I do hope that I shall live long enough to see a little bit of growth in the tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to ignore that Prince William\u2014Charles\u2019s eldest son and his heir\u2014might, at 42, come face-to-face with the throne sooner than he expected.<\/p>\n

When Charles became king in 2022, he was two months away from turning 74\u2014at that age, the oldest person to take the British throne in history. Less than a year later, he was diagnosed with cancer<\/a>, as was his daughter-in-law, Princess Catherine<\/a>, nearly simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\"london,<\/p>\n

Chris Jackson – Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Princess of Wales announced in January that she is in remission<\/a>; meanwhile, the king\u2019s treatment continues, and on March 27 he was hospitalized<\/a> after experiencing adverse side effects to said treatment. Though the scare was later called a \u201cminor bump in the road,\u201d it brought the reality of the situation back into focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people I\u2019ve spoken to have said that the succession planning, as they call it, began even before Charles\u2019 diagnosis,\u201d royal author Tom Quinn tells Harper\u2019s Bazaar. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s the oldest Prince of Wales to become king in history, so succession planning had begun before Charles came to the throne simply because of the age issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"dunedin,<\/p>\n

Rob Jefferies – Getty Images<\/p>\n

Though Charles had potentially the longest apprenticeship of all time, Robert Hardman\u2014author of the 2024 biography Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story.<\/a>\u2014tells Bazaar that Charles had no formal preparation when it came to learning how to be a monarch. \u201cIt\u2019s always a role where you learn by example,\u201d Hardman says. As such, William isn\u2019t necessarily undergoing training for the top job, but \u201cthey\u2019re preparing William by giving him more of the sort of work that Charles would do,\u201d Quinn says, adding that \u201cObviously, the cancer diagnosis has made everything more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Andersen, author of many royal biographies including 2022\u2019s The King: The Life of Charles III<\/a>, says: \u201cThe palace is putting on a good front, but the situation, in reality, is still very fluid.\u201d When it comes to the king, he adds, \u201cIt\u2019s still touch-and-go.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Charles planted a tree in Italy, William, Kate, and their three kids, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, enjoyed a ski holiday in the French Alps while the kids were on Easter break from school. It\u2019s unknown how long the Waleses have before becoming monarchs, but for now, they are still build their own schedule of royal duties around the kids\u2019 school schedule. \u201cTheir first priority is and has always been their children,\u201d Andersen says, adding that \u201cKate and William really can\u2019t allow dark thoughts to creep in at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a November 2024 interview, William candidly admitted that last year was \u201cbrutal\u201d and the \u201chardest year in my life\u201d<\/a> watching both his wife and his father endure cancer diagnoses. \u201cWilliam has willingly been the visible face of the monarchy while all this drama is going on, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s not hurting,\u201d Andersen says.<\/p>\n

\"london,<\/p>\n

Samir Hussein – Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of the future, \u201cOfficials and aides\u2014people who work very closely with William and Kate and Charles\u2014they\u2019re all conscious that William might have to become king earlier than expected,\u201d Quinn says. \u201cPartly the cancer, partly simply [because Charles is] 76. He could go on another 10 years, he could go on for 20 years. But with the cancer diagnosis, it\u2019s a wake-up call.\u201d He adds that \u201cCharles knows that he isn\u2019t going to be king for that long.\u201d<\/p>\n

His condition, however, has not slowed the sovereign (and known workaholic) down. \u201cQueen Camilla still worries that her husband is perhaps pushing himself too hard,\u201d Andersen says. \u201cNobody really expected him to be an ideal patient. King Charles has always been very impatient and is accustomed to getting his way at all times. Anyone who thought he would obey his doctors and take it easy indefinitely doesn\u2019t know the man.\u201d Case in point? Less than two weeks after his hospitalization, he and Camilla were in Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace of this reign hasn\u2019t changed since it started,\u201d Hardman says. \u201cLife is carrying on as it would\u2019ve done if he hadn\u2019t had the cancer. I think the best way of putting it is he\u2019s living with cancer, rather than suffering from cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The night of his March 27 hospitalization, \u201cHe came back to Clarence House, he had dinner with Queen Camilla, and then he proceeded to do what he does every night, which is work,\u201d royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, who wrote the 2017 book Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life<\/a>, tells Bazaar. \u201cThat\u2019s just an indication of how committed he is to doing his job with every ounce of energy he has.\u201d Despite Charles\u2019s energy, she adds, there is evidence of fatigue. \u201cIt\u2019s safe to say that, even though he\u2019s working as hard as he always has, that he doesn\u2019t appear to be quite as robust as he once was,\u201d she says. \u201cBut, then again, he\u2019s getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"london,<\/p>\n

Chris Jackson – Getty Images<\/p>\n

Bedell Smith says discussions about succession and plans for after Charles\u2019s reign ends are taking place\u2014plans that Charles, like his mother before him, is actively involved with. With Charles\u2019s parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, living to 96 and 99, respectively, many no doubt assumed that Charles, too, would probably live to be a nonagenarian. But cancer is a game-changing disease.<\/p>\n

After waiting so long to take the throne, Charles \u201cis determined to make his mark as king,\u201d Bedell Smith says. \u201cI would maintain that he made an extraordinary mark as Prince of Wales, and that\u2019s a huge part of his legacy. But he doesn\u2019t want that to be his only legacy. He wants to leave a legacy of his reign.\u201d But, she adds, \u201cI think he is probably measuring the rest of his time in years rather than decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same vein, as far as William and Kate are concerned, \u201cI think they\u2019re very much aware that their time as Prince and Princess of Wales may be limited,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s probably safe to assume that they\u2019re preparing for it sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

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