William will not deputise yet as King keeps going
Heir to throne allowed to put family first as monarch ploughs on with tasks despite cancer treatment
WHILE his estranged brother flew from Los Angeles for a 30-minute meeting with the King, and the King in turn flew with the Queen to Sandringham, the Prince of Wales was at home.
After the school run for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, he was on hand to help the Princess of Wales in her third week of recovery following major abdominal surgery and quietly get on with work from Windsor.
Today he will re-enter the world of public duty for an investiture at Windsor Castle and a speech at a gala to raise money for first responders at London’s Air Ambulance.
Then he will be back home to spend the school half term with his family.
As the King ploughs on with his state duties despite a diagnosis of cancer, his eldest son and heir is on hand to help but, perhaps unexpectedly, is not needed to deputise for the top job quite yet.
He may undertake “some duties” on behalf of the King, a palace source said, but it will be a “few select engagements rather than a whole tranche”.
Instead, he has the blessing of the King to take the time to see his wife settled and comfortable at home.
From Adelaide Cottage the Prince is said to have been in “constant communication” with his father but is not known to have seen him since his cancer diagnosis.
A source said Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace were liaising “work wise” over practicalities while the Prince was kept informed of the latest news about Charles’ health. In common with the rest of his immediate family, the King personally told him the results of the medical investigations that revealed cancer.
Prince William in turn, alongside the Princess, had to break the news of their grandfather’s health to his own young children before they heard it from elsewhere.
William’s support for his father is “given privately”, it is said, with “nothing he needs to pick up for the King in the immediate future”.
That the Prince of Wales is free to look after his wife and children is both unremarkable – the straightforward action of any good father – but also remarkable: he is the first future king fully able to do so.
It is a real change from the policies of the past. No stiff upper lip, no Firm before family.
When asked whether the Prince would need to “pick up” the King’s public duties, a palace source said it was “anticipated” that he will return to public duty only when the Princess of Wales had settled in for recuperation at home.
Although they would not use the same phrase as Prince Harry’s “generational pain”, this is a King and Prince mindful that the next generation can do better.
When Charles’ own mother became Queen aged 25, when he was three, theirs was a life devoted to duty. Long absences from overseas tours, life based around a nursery with beloved nannies and being sent away to school were his formative experiences.
Prince William, who had a homelier start, went on to live between divorced parents before the untimely death of his mother.
“The King, like the late Queen, has been keen that William has as much time [with his family] as he can, while he can,” a source said.
In time, there is no doubt the Prince
‘The King, like the late Queen, has been keen that William spends as much time with his family while he can’
will need to step up further. The King can do much of his state business from home, keeping him away from the risk of infection that meeting hundreds of members of the public would bring, but there will still be a gaping hole in the Royal family’s usual schedule.
The King undertook more than 500 engagements in 2023, travelling the length and breadth of the country in a model set by his own parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Those will fall by the wayside for now.
If the King suffers any health setbacks during treatment, which can be gruelling, Prince William will be the one to get the call-up to step in as a Counsellor of State or the endless important meeting-and-greeting which makes up the life of a sovereign.
While he had 52 years to make his mark as Prince of Wales – and few would argue that the legacy of The Prince’s Trust is not enough for any man to be proud of – his son has been in the job for 17 months so far.
His major causes, an environmental prize and homelessness project, are under way but have not yet had time to reach their potential.
“His focus won’t be taken away from Earthshot and Homewards, that won’t change,” said a source close to the Prince. “He is totally committed to those causes.
“The job of the Prince of Wales is to support the monarch, and he is already doing that alongside his own programme.”
William has already picked up some of the monarchy’s overseas administrative duties, flying to Kuwait in December 2023 to pay his condolences following the death of Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
But there is a sense that he can and should have time to stretch his own legs and build his own legacy before the crown beckons. Regardless of the King’s prognosis, time marches in one direction and William’s future is inescapably on the throne.
He is in no rush to get there.