In a video released on Wednesday, Queen Camilla made rare public comments about King Charles III’s cancer, talking about how difficult his diagnosis had been for her, especially in the days before Buckingham Palace made the news public.
“I was just longing to let it out,” Camilla said in the video, which was released by the British royal family and by a leading U.K. cancer charity, Maggie’s, of which Camilla is the president.
“But, obviously, I couldn’t,” she added.
Camilla was reflecting on a 2024 visit with cancer patients and their families, which she made shortly after Charles’s cancer was diagnosed — but before the palace had made an official announcement.
The queen, who has been involved with Maggie’s for years, had often made such visits. But this time was different, she said: She was there not just as a figurehead, but as another worried spouse.
“I was almost questioning them,” Camilla said. She held back, she said, because she “didn’t want to pry too deeply.”
With Charles’s condition still a secret, she could not tell the others that they were all experiencing the fear and uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis. Holding back was “quite difficult,” she said in the video, which was released to mark the charity’s 30th anniversary.
“I almost said something,” she added, “but I felt that it wasn’t the time.”
It is rare for members of the royal family to speak publicly about their private lives. Since 2024, they have dealt not just with Charles’s diagnosis but with that of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, who announced weeks later that she, too, was battling cancer.
Neither royal has disclosed what type of cancer they have. Both have since returned to public life and have used their diagnoses to advocate for cancer patients and speak about the emotional challenges of facing the disease.
In December, when Charles told the British public that he was doing well and could scale back his treatment, he said it was “a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years.”