Is King Charles okay?
Prince William made headlines after heartbreaking meeting with Donald Trump Saturday at Notre-Dame, but the British media hesitated to ask the most obvious question: why was it not King Charles there with the other 35 heads of state of the world?
Prince William was only confirmed as attending in Charles’ place on Friday. Charles’ aides pointed out that he had already seen the rebuilt cathedral, destroyed by fire five years ago, during a trip to France earlier this year.
The palace did not respond to questions asking whether the king’s health, cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment were factors in his failure to appear.
However, a friend of the King and Queen told The Daily Beast that the royal couple wanted to keep things “calm” to “preserve their health in the run-up to Christmas” after Camilla contracted pneumonia following their long trip to Australia earlier. This year. The infection has persisted for several weeks and it has still not regained its full strength. The 77-year-old is believed to have contracted viral pneumonia, sometimes called walking pneumonia.
The palace has been only partially transparent about Camilla’s condition, calling it a “nasty bug” before Camilla dramatically backtracked from her message during the Emir of Qatar’s state visit this week and said to the guests that she was suffering from pneumonia.
The friend said: “Her vulnerabilities are well known, but her pneumonia is a poor reminder of hers. I think everyone is relieved that he doesn’t want to go to Paris and stay in the cold for hours. They keep silent very wisely to preserve their health as Christmas approaches.
The event was indeed chilly: Prince William, who was filling in for the king, joked with Donald Trump that they needed to warm up as they sat in front of an open fire for a one-on-one meeting. head.
“Have you warmed up?” » William asked Trump.
“Yes, I warmed up, it was a beautiful ceremony,” Trump replied.
As the two men then settle into the yellow sofas of the Yellow Room, William returns to the theme by saying: “We can warm our toes after the cathedral.”
It was Trump’s first meeting with a member of the royal family since his re-election. The fact that Charles decided to ignore it is therefore remarkable.
William’s aides were quick to claim the meeting reflected the prince’s evolution as a “global statesman”.
Queen’s son, aware of his ‘mortality’, says he will spend Christmas with mum
The royal Christmas is slowly taking shape. Tom Parker Bowles, Queen Camilla’s son, who has been making the media rounds in recent weeks to promote his new book The kitchen and the crowna gallop through the royal consumption of Camilla’s porridge to the Queen Mother’s gin and Dubonnet, declared that he would spend the festive season with his mother at Sandringham.
He told the Telegraph: “It’s been this way for 15 years: I go back to my ex-wife’s house, sit in my tracksuit bottoms, go to the pub while the beef is in, then try to get my kids to watch. Wild geese. Classic. So it would be a little different.
When asked who will be there, he replies: “I really don’t know. I know there’s turkey, cabbage and church. And I have to bring a suit and a tuxedo.
When asked why he was going this year, he said: “My mum said, ‘I’d love for you to come, I haven’t spent Christmas with you in a long time.’ It’s been a hell of a couple of years for them. The older you get, the more aware you become of mortality, especially illnesses and the like.
Broken
Tom Parker Bowles also has a great story about his encounters with the Queen, whom he only met twice: “Everyone thinks I knew the late Queen, but we only met twice,” says -he. “Once, when I was eight, I was scared, so I curtsied rather than bowed, and again at my mother’s wedding, where my sister and I went to get a cigarette and heard his voice behind us say, “Are you lost?” (The relationship) was done away with once and for all.
Lost in the mail?
The Royalist searched the mailbox, but to no avail. It doesn’t look like we received a Christmas card from the King and Queen.
The card, released this weekend, shows the couple strolling through the garden of Buckingham Palace.
It was taken earlier this year, after the king was diagnosed with cancer.