King Charles III diagnosed with cancer, receiving treatment
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00:00 Britain's King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer. According to Buckingham Palace,
00:04 the monarch's diagnosis is not related to his recent treatment for an enlarged prostate.
00:10 The King is suspending his public engagements and is being treated as an outpatient. Charles III
00:17 will not be handing over his constitutional role during the course of his treatment.
00:22 Now for more on all of this, we can bring in France 24's royal watcher, Philip Terle. Philip,
00:28 great to see you as always. We don't know what form of cancer the King has, but there appears to
00:32 be this willingness on the part of the palace to be as transparent as possible. Right, I think you
00:36 have to look at it this way, Delano. Up until the arrival of Charles III on the throne, we never
00:41 really got any news from Buckingham Palace about what was going on medically concerning the royal
00:47 family. For example, his grandfather, King George VI, died of cancer. Nobody was told about that.
00:53 They were just informed that he had what they used to call at the time a long illness. This
00:58 time round, we are being given more information. It's not total transparency, but we're being given
01:04 more information about the medical condition of the King. We've been given a little bit of
01:08 information about the medical condition of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales. I think we're
01:14 at the end of one sort of system and the beginning of a more open system. When the Queen Elizabeth,
01:20 Queen Elizabeth II, was hospitalised, we didn't know about that until after she came out of
01:23 hospital. This time round, what is new is that the public has been informed that Charles was going
01:28 into hospital for a prostate exam and treatment, and now we've been told that he has a form of
01:35 cancer without being told exactly what sort of cancer that is. So that marks a change in the way
01:41 that the royal family is communicating with the general public in what was always in the past
01:46 perceived to be a private domain, the medical secret that was not to be discussed as far as
01:54 the royal duties was concerned and everything that the public had the right to know about the
01:59 workings of the royal family. We have a British newspaper that's reporting that Prince Harry was
02:05 spotted at an airport. Presumably, he's going to be making his way back to the United Kingdom later
02:10 on today. Could we see, given that we don't have many of the high profile royals who are working,
02:18 as you said, Kate Middleton herself is in recovery. Now we have the King who's getting this
02:23 cancer treatment. So we just have Prince William. Could we see Harry come back in into the working
02:31 royal role? No, I don't think so. I think what we're seeing here is Harry coming back to see
02:36 his father because he wants to see him basically because of this news. You have to remember that
02:44 Harry's had a pretty rough time. He's broken up with his brother. He's lost his mother at an early
02:49 age. Now he sees that his father is seriously ill with a cancer. So he wants to come over to see him.
02:57 We don't know whether this is a sign of how bad the situation is with Charles. But I think you
03:01 have to put it in the family context that when this kind of announcement is made that the family
03:06 wants to come together, we'll see whether or not this leads to a healing of the rift between him
03:12 and William. But I don't think we'll see William and I think we'll see Harry coming back into
03:17 playing a major role with the royal family for the simple reason that his wife, Meghan Markle,
03:22 and their two children are still in the United States. And he's not going to stay for very long
03:26 in the United Kingdom away from the rest of his family. So but as far as replacing Charles is
03:32 concerned, there is a protocol which is well established. Everything is laid out in the event
03:37 of an unexpected situation. When Charles is absent from from his duties because he's ill or
03:45 incapacitated, then it'll be William who stands in with Kate Middleton, depending on how well she is
03:51 to be able to fulfill her duties. If they can't do it, it'll be Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.
03:56 If she can't do it, it'll be Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie. So there is a relay behind to
04:04 take over from Charles if he's unable to do his duties. And I think that is something that is
04:10 important for the royal family because they know that there is always someone who will be there to
04:16 take to take their place. What we don't know, and that is the big question now, is how long it's
04:20 going to be before Charles can take his duties back. He has two important visits lined up this
04:25 year, one to Canada in May and one to Australia, New Zealand in October. Will he be able to go or
04:30 not? If he doesn't go, that will be seriously disappointing for the people of those two
04:34 countries. Philip, thank you very much for that. Philip, tell them.