Charles’ bedside visit to Kate says so much about the royals today
It is, of course, fortuitous they are undergoing medical treatment at the same London hospital. But do not underestimate the significance of King Charles’ decision to spend a few moments yesterday at his adored daughter-in-law’s bedside.
Along with his wife, Queen Camilla (her presence there another break with royal tradition), His Majesty made a beeline for Catherine’s room at the private London Clinic in Marylebone, where she had spent a tenth night following what has only been described as ‘planned abdominal surgery’.
Put simply, royals don’t tend to visit each other in hospital, or at least very rarely.
Although they live very public lives, monarchy can actually be quite a lonely path to walk at times.
Senior family members do not, generally, like to draw attention to themselves or their loved ones. they are also acutely aware that the extra security and media attention that inevitably accompanies them is the last thing a busy hospital or other patients need.
However, as we are fast coming to learn, Charles, 75, is not afraid to do things differently. He has come to adore Kate, with whom he has bonded not just over mutual loves, such as music and art, but also over his grandchildren.
the King thinks she is doing a ‘wonderful’ job bringing up George, Charlotte and Louis, and is appreciative of the very stable little family unit she and William have created.
And he relishes the time he gets with them at Windsor now that he is spending more time at the Castle, where they live just a few minutes’ drive away.
Surely there can be no stronger signal of their bond than the princess being so happy to see her father-in-law following what is clearly serious and debilitating surgery.
It should also be noted that Queen Camilla’s presence at the hospital by her husband’s side was equally remarkable.
While the late Queen Elizabeth II visited her husband Prince Philip in hospital during some of his lengthier (and more serious) convalescences, Camilla insisted on accompanying her husband as he was admitted, too. She spent several hours at his bedside, remaining at the hospital until he was brought out of surgery for an enlarged prostate and she felt that he was doing well.
Friends tell me she wouldn’t have had it any other way. ‘they are a genuinely devoted and very sweet couple,’ said one. Indeed, Annabel Elliot, Camilla’s sister, recently described her as being the King’s ‘rock’.
‘they’re the yin and yang. they really are polar opposites but I think it works brilliantly,’ she said. Another friend adds: ‘It sounds a bit cheesy, I know, but they really are a team. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that she would be there.’
It’s why I know reports earlier this week that the Queen had been urging her husband to slow down were somewhat wide of the mark. Granted, it is a phrase she often employs: she once jokingly told me that she might need to jump up and down holding a placard reminding him it was his birthday if she were to have any chance of getting him to look up from his desk.
But Charles is a workaholic, who famously packs in ten to 12 engagements and meetings a day and spends many a night alone in his study, furiously writing letters and keeping up with paperwork well into the early hours. His wife knows he won’t change, and nor would she want him to.
Despite being told by doctors to cancel public engagements ahead of his surgery, the King has insisted on not only keeping up with his paperwork but even holding meetings behind the scenes.
Hours before he flew back down to Buckingham Palace on thursday night, ahead of being admitted to hospital, he had an audience at Sandringham with Dame Polly Courtice of Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Professor Robert Miller, director of the Whittle Laboratory.
I can also reveal that staff are ready to take paperwork into hospital for him to deal with, should it be necessary. ‘I really wouldn’t be surprised if he is back working sooner rather than later,’ said a source.
It is for this reason that the King – who is expected to remain in hospital for two days – has made clear he will not be needing counsellors of state to stand in for him.
Historically, the spouse of the sovereign and the next four people in the line of succession – counsellors of state – are authorised to carry out the monarch’s official duties should they be incapacitated.
With Prince William clearing his diary to be by his wife’s side, Prince Andrew and Prince Harry could, theoretically, have been called on. thankfully, this now won’t be the case.
the Royal Family has suffered more than their fair share of brickbats in recent years. Yet today – in the unexpected surroundings of a London hospital – we see a family more united than ever.