Just before Christmas last year, King Charles made a video address as part of Stand Up To Cancer. He announced that his health had improved to the point where his cancer treatments would be reduced in 2026. That means that Charles is no longer tied to staying in London mid-week, every week, for his treatments. It was good news overall, and it really hampered his heir’s campaign of “I’m gonna be king any day now.” Prince William was furious that Charles’ health has improved and furious that he had to stop with the macabre briefings about his imminent kingship. Well, now Robert Jobson says that the British media was encouraged to hype Charles’ improved health, even though Charles isn’t actually doing better?

The Palace deliberately overhyped positive news about King Charles’s cancer treatment in December, one of Britain’s most respected royal correspondents has claimed. Robert Jobson the veteran Fleet Street journalist dubbed the Godfather of Royal Reporting by the Wall Street Journal, and author of the explosive new book The Windsor Legacy, made the claim in an interview with The Royalist podcast, saying that Palace aides had leaned on journalists to present the King’s health bulletins in the most positive possible light.

‘I think it was overhyped in December. I think that the Palace were over-emphasizing the “good news.” The press spokespeople were saying, “Oh, this is good news.” They were trying to say to the journalists at the time, “Don’t interpret it any other way. This is good news.”

‘The King is living with cancer. He will live with cancer. There is not any prospect, I think, of anything other than him living with cancer. And that says it all.’

I praised the King’s extraordinary example, his courage and sense of duty, and said that friends of mine who had spent time with him lately had found him full of vigor at midnight.

‘What he’s going through and what he’s doing — I’ve seen it at events, not that far from him, and he’s almost falling asleep standing up. And this is a man who believes wholeheartedly in his duty.’

He added that Charles would likely be adjusting his treatments ahead of his upcoming Washington visit ‘to make sure he’s got enough energy to give it his best shot.’ Jobson also suggested that while the King would never abdicate, he would, if seriously ill, allow the disease to take its inevitable course.

‘If he felt that he could not carry out his duty because of ill health, he would probably say, “I can’t continue with the treatment I’ve got, and I’ll let it take its action.”’

[From The Royalist Substack]

Charles hasn’t been “almost falling asleep standing up.” He looks exhausted, absolutely. But there’s no need to exaggerate, especially when Charles still outworks William and Kate combined. I can’t believe I’m about to defend Charles and Buckingham Palace, but I don’t think they were wrong to hype or overhype the “good news.” It was genuinely good news, wasn’t it? That Charles no longer needed weekly cancer treatments, that he planned on traveling more and working more. Two things can be true at the same time – it was good news AND Charles is still living with cancer. Besides which, the announcement was worth it just to watch Kensington Palace backtrack on their Scooter King campaign. Speaking of, Jobson also revealed that William refuses to show any deference to his father at this point:

Jobson also painted a vivid and at times alarming picture of the relationship between the courts of King Charles and the Prince of Wales, describing a barely concealed rivalry and a striking lack of deference from William’s camp toward the monarch.

‘William’s team — and William personally himself — are not as deferential to the monarch as Charles was to the late Queen,’ Jobson said. ‘They’re a bit too loud in talking about what they’re going to do when William is king.’

On the question of a reconciliation with Prince Harry, Jobson said that while Charles instinctively wanted to heal the rift, both William and Camilla represented significant obstacles. ‘William is the block,’ he said flatly, adding that Camilla, stung by Harry’s portrayal of her in his memoir Spare, was ‘not overly keen’ on a reconciliation either.

Jobson described Camilla as having stepped into the role of the King’s fiercest protector, comparing her function to that of the Duke of Edinburgh alongside the late Queen. ‘She’s his protector,’ he said. ‘She probably thinks that deep down the King wears his heart on his sleeve and he may be a bit too soft. She will not allow anybody to take advantage of the King — not even William.’

[From The Royalist Substack]

“They’re a bit too loud in talking about what they’re going to do when William is king.” It’s true. We’ve seen it with our own eyes. It comes across as macabre and childish too, which is probably why Charles mostly lets it go, you know? William looks like a huge a–hole. Anyway, Charles got the heir he deserves so it is what it is.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.