Why King Charles' Type of Cancer Has Not Been Disclosed: 'In Time We Might Know,' Says Biographer

Mar. 15, 2025

King Charles in November 2023.Photo:Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Buckingham Palace’s shocking announcement thatKing Charleshas cancer stopped short of sharing his exact diagnosis.

“In time we might know,” royal biographer Robert Hardmantells PEOPLEexclusively in this week’s issue. “But for now, there is a feeling that they have been pretty open."

Although the exact nature of the King’s diagnosis was kept private, the news shared more than past health announcements related to royal family members.

King George VI’s lung cancer diagnosis was revealed only after he died in 1952, and news ofPrincess Margaret’s lung operation in 1985 was shared after surgery. The announcement ofQueen Camilla’s 2007 hysterectomy didn’t specify the reason behind it, and the nature of the abdominal surgeryPrince Philiphad in 2013 has never been disclosed.

Most recently, the announcement ofKate Middleton’s “planned abdominal surgery” was publicized after the procedure had been completed, and the Kensington Palace statement didn’t include any condition details. PEOPLE understands the issue is non-cancerous, and Princess Kate wasdischarged from the hospitalon Jan. 29 to continue her recovery at home. She’s not expected to return to royal duties in public until after Easter.

One week after Princess Kate left the hospital, Buckingham Palace announced that the King, 75, was diagnosed with “a form of cancer.”

Although the statement offered few details, the palace did reveal that when King Charles underwent his recent prostate procedure, a separate issue of concern was detected and “subsequent diagnostic tests have revealed the presence of a form of cancer." (Despite his recent procedure, it is not prostate cancer, a spokesman confirmed.)

“I was really shocked when I heard it,” says a palace insider.

PEOPLE magazine, Feb. 19.

Adds a source who knows him, “He has not looked himself. I put it down to grief — he’d had two deaths close together [his mother,Queen Elizabeth, in September 2022 and his father, Prince Philip, in April 2021] — but maybe he wasn’t well, without realizing so. It would take it out of him.”

The palace statement said that the King “remains wholly positive about his treatment” and looked forward to returning to public duty as soon as possible. Though he has been advised to postpone public-facing engagements after commencing a schedule of treatments, King Charles will continue to receive his “red boxes,” the monarch’s daily delivery of official files, and process state documents behind the scenes.

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“Yes, he’s going to step back from public duties for a considerable time, but there will be plenty of work for him — it just won’t necessarily be in a room with hundreds of people,” says Hardman. Adds the palace insider: “He will want to get on with the job.”

source: people.com