The Actual Reason King Charles Isn’t Attending Pope Leo’s Inauguration Revealed as ‘Frightening’ Reports About His Health Surface
The Royal Family keeps giving us things to talk about. From King Charles’ health, to rumors about his feud with his son Prince Harry, which have escalated after Harry’s latest interview, to reports that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage might be facing some hard times, there’s always something. And especially, when it comes to the monarch, there has been a continued worry about his health, as the king has been battling cancer for the past year.
But for anyone hoping to be able to see the King in a big event, one that would give people an idea of how he was really doing, that’s apparently not happening. Neither King Charles, nor Prince William, nor Kate Middleton will be attending Pope Leo’s Inauguration. This follows the King skipping Pope Francis’ funeral, as protocol dictates the King does not attend funerals for heads of state. Prince William attended in his stead.
Related: Did William really cheat on Kate?
The King did release a statement about the Pope’s passing. “My wife and I were most deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pope Francis,” Charles said. “Our heavy hearts have been somewhat eased, however, to know that His Holiness was able to share an Easter Greeting with the Church and the world he served with such devotion throughout his life and ministry.”
All of this comes amid reports that succession planning is already advanced in Britain, after the European Editor-at-Large at the Daily Beast, Tom Sykes, revealed on the outlet’s podcast that “succession plans are gearing up” as “no one is really expecting Charles to live, you know, more than three or four years.”
“And I mean that in the context of that when he came to the throne, people definitely felt he could live ‘til he was the age of his mother or his father who was 99,” Sykes said. “So people definitely thought it was 20 years of the King Charles era and I think people much more now think it is now going to be a five, six year reign, something like that.”
But succession planning was apparently underway long before Charles’ health issues. “The people I’ve spoken to have said that the succession planning, as they call it, began even before Charles’ diagnosis,” royal author Tom Quinn told Harper’s Bazaar recently. “I mean, he’s the oldest Prince of Wales to become king in history, so succession planning had begun before Charles came to the throne simply because of the age issue.” The King’s illness has likely only accelerated matters, with William stepping in to take on a lot of the responsibilities and help his father while he recovers.
All of this concern about King Charles’ health comes days after, in that now infamous BBC interview, Prince Harry suggested the King was sicker than anyone thought. “I don’t know how much longer my father has,” he said in the interview.
Whether this has anything to do with the decision to have the Duke of Edinburgh represent His Majesty at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, or not, remains to be seen. But there is some precedent for the King not attending. In 2013, when Pope Francis was inaugurated, that event wasn’t attended by Queen Elizabeth. Instead, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester represented the crown. Before that, in 2005, Prince Philip attended Pope Benedict XVI’s Inauguration. And though the King recently spoke about his ‘frightening’ cancer diagnosis while hosting a reception for the cancer community at Buckingham Palace, it seems for now he’s doing just fine. How long that will last remains to be seen.
