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Queen Camilla has described the difficulty of concealing King Charles III's cancer diagnosis while visiting a support charity shortly after her husband was diagnosed with the disease.
Buckingham Palace announced the diagnosis on Feb. 5, 2024, saying the king had begun a schedule of regular treatments. The palace has not disclosed what type of cancer he has been treated for.
In a short film produced in collaboration between the palace and cancer support charity Maggie's, which Camilla serves as president of, the queen recalled visiting one of the charity's centers "just after the King (was) diagnosed."
"Nobody could say anything at the time. That was quite difficult," she told Maggie's chief executive Laura Lee in a filmed conversation at the monarch's London residence, Clarence House.
"I almost said something but, you know, I felt that it wasn't the time to say," Camilla added, noting, "I was just longing to let it out but obviously I couldn't."
Camilla said the visit, made while knowing her own husband had cancer, underlined the value of Maggie's, which operates 27 centers across the U.K. built on hospital grounds.
"(I) looked at everybody who was suffering and all the relations and I think it made me realize even more how important these places were," she said in the seven-minute video, posted on YouTube late on Tuesday.
Charles, 77, returned gradually to public duties within months of beginning what has become years of treatment. Last December, in a televised speech, the monarch said that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and following medical advice, his treatment schedule would be reduced in 2026.
Camilla said her husband had refused to let the diagnosis stop him from carrying out public duties.
"Nothing stopped him. He just said: 'This is my way. I'm going to cope with it.'"
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