The announcement of King Charles III’s cancer on Monday February 5 shocked the United Kingdom. This is evidenced by the plethora of reporters camped in front of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, and newspapers devoting their front pages to it. “The King has cancer” headlines include the Times, the Daily Telegraph and several British tabloids, such as The Sun and the Daily Star, all displaying a portrait of Charles, who became king after the death of his wife. mother, Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022 at the age of 96.
The Mirror shares in its front page the “shock” of the British nation, calling the palace announcement a “bomb” and highlighting that the king’s prostate problem – for which he underwent surgery around ten years ago days –, perhaps “saved” his life. The Daily Mail, for its part, paints the portrait of a combative king, “deeply grateful” that doctors “detected early” his cancer. “Recover quickly, Your Majesty, the country needs you,” the newspaper urged.
“In a few hours, the destiny of the royal family changed, and that of the United Kingdom with it,” underlines the Daily Telegraph, which also analyzes a change in communication in relation to Charles III’s grandfather, George VI, who had kept his health problems a secret before his death in 1952, and to Elizabeth II. The BBC, which read the Buckingham Palace press release live on Monday evening, cites the words of the Queen’s former press secretary, Simon Lewis, who also believes that twenty years ago, “we would not have had only a “short and dry statement” on the state of health of the monarch. According to him, Buckingham Palace “went as far as it could” in its communication.
“Opaque Statements”
The daily newspaper The Times, however, does not see this as a real change in royal communication, estimating that after the transparency which the king demonstrated by making public his prostate problem, the announcement of his cancer “renew[ed] with the old rules” of the Palace, with “opaque declarations”. “By choosing to be transparent one moment and not the next, they could attract unwanted speculation,” analyzes the daily, which fears that “many assume that the king’s state of health is more serious than what the Palace suggests; or worse, they are trying to hide something.” The British newspaper thus still seems to carry the trauma of the Palace’s communication about Prince Philip or Elizabeth II, when Buckingham declared them “in a good state of mind” shortly before announcing their death.
Beyond the announcement, British newspapers want to believe, on Tuesday, in the solidity of the royal family’s ties to support Charles and assume some of his obligations. Royal biographer Christopher Wilson points out in the Daily Telegraph that the king has “the love of his life by his side”, “his rock”, Queen Camilla, to help him get through this ordeal. “In Camilla we trust”, displays The Mirror, which points to the drastic change in the image of a queen, former mistress of the king when he was married to Diana, who was once an “outcast » and “now leads the Firm”, in reference to the nickname of the royal family.
Prince William, Charles’s eldest son and heir to the crown, should also play a more important role in public appearances and official engagements, analyzes the BBC. But the prince is only just returning to his duties after his wife, Kate, also underwent an “abdominal operation”, about which little is known. The arrival in the United Kingdom of Harry, exiled in California with his family since 2020 and at odds with the royal family, also raises, on the front pages and in the British columns, many questions and hopes for reconciliation. “Is it time for Harry to come home? », asks The Mirror, when the Daily Mail wonders if “William and Harry will finally reconcile”, after being torn apart in recent years.