Palace issue update on King Charles’ work schedule amid cancer battle – Latest news

Prince William has recounted the time his mother, the late Princess Diana, took him and his brother to homeless shelter as a child.

The Prince of Wales recalled playing chess and chatting with people during his first visit to The Passage homelessness charity with his mother, more than 30 years ago.

He told the ITV1 and ITVX documentary – Prince William: We Can End Homelessness: “My mother took me to The Passage. She took Harry and I both there. I must have been about 11, I think probably at the time, maybe 10. I’d never been to anything like that before, and I was a bit anxious as to what to expect.

“My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed and having a laugh and joking with everyone.”

King Charles was “completely unruffled” after being confronted by an Australian senator accusing him of genocide, a palace official has said.

Lidia Thorpe, 51, an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights, shouted at the King in a fiery address during his royal reception in Great Hall of Parliament House on Monday.

She approached the stage shouting “you are not my king” and accusing the King of “committing genocide against our people”, as she urged him to negotiate treaty between Australia‘s First Nations and its government.

However, the monarch remained relatively unaffected by this. The palace official said: “He’s been around a long time. As always, kept calm, carried on.”

He believes “free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and so everyone is entitled to their views”. Potential issues during a overseas tour are “not ducked”, it’s “very easy to run away from some of these issues.

“But the King isn’t one for doing that,” said the palace official.

King Charles is set to return to his normal schedule of overseas tours next year, amid his ongoing cancer treatment.

In an update given by a palace official, it was revealed Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn in 2025, provided doctors sanction the travel.

“We’re now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour programme for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms,” the official said.

An update about the state of the King’s health or his treatment has not been given but the news that Charles will take on more overseas trips suggests his cancer is being managed successfully.

King Charles has acknowledged that the “most painful aspects” the Commonwealth’s past “continue to resonate”, as he indirectly acknowledged growing calls for slavery reprations in Samoa.

The monarch acknowledged the need to “right inequalites that endure” as he told world leaders at the the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm): “None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”

He added: “Our cohesion requires that we acknowledge where we have come from. I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.”

The Prince of Wales is using the school run to tell his children about homelessness, just as his mother did when he was a boy, as he attempts to find ways to tackle the issue.

William said he talks to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis when they spot rough sleepers – much in the same way that his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, did when he and his brother Harry were children.

He tells the ITV1 and ITVX documentary – Prince William: We Can End Homelessness: “When you are that small you are just curious and trying to work out what’s going on. You ask the question ‘why are they sitting there?’

“My mother would talk to us a bit about why they were there and it definitely made a really big impact.”

William was asked on the documentary when he felt the right time would be to introduce George, 11; Charlotte, nine; and Louis, six, to homelessness.

He replied: “I am probably already doing it on the school run. The first few times I thought ‘do I bring this up or should I wait to see if they notice?’ Sure enough, they did. They were sort of in silence when I said what was going on.”

There are no plans to host weddings for members of the public on the King’s Balmoral Estate, a spokesman for the royal residence has said.

Weddings are mentioned in plans a representative for the Aberdeenshire estate had lodged for the Queen’s Building, on the grounds near Balmoral Castle.

The plans state the venue “may be used for weddings, dinners, meetings and associated events”, which it said would be “rare throughout the year”.

But a spokesman for the estate said: “There are no plans for Balmoral to host weddings as a commercial venture.”

It is understood the estate has had the capability to host functions and events, both private and public, for a number of years.

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Mike Tindall, the late Queen’s grandson-in-law, says the Queen’s life “wasn’t like an episode of Downton Abbey”.

The world cup winning rugby union player, who is married to the Queen’s granddaughtr Zara Tindall, revealed what the Queen was like behind closed doors in his joint book ‘The Good, The Bad and The Rugby – Unleashed’, released alongside podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne.

“I’m sometimes asked if the Queen did informality like ‘normal’ people, and the answer to that is yes,” Mr Tindall said.

“Her life wasn’t like an episode of Downton Abbey, with meals on long tables and everyone dressed in their finery every night, and Zara and I would often watch the racing with her on TV, as I’m sure lots of people reading this have done with their gran.

“Lunches were also relaxed, especially up in Scotland, where lunch would often be heading out into the open space of the Scottish Highlands for a picnic.

“There’s a great picture of my daughter Mia sitting with the Duke of Edinburgh that captures exactly what those afternoons were like: members of a very close family who loved each other dearly spending precious time together. Yes, there’s a lot of drama surrounding the royal family, but they aren’t much different to anyone else underneath it all,” he added.