Prince William will ‘welcome’ Queen Camilla’s help in carrying out royal duties amid health battles faced by his father King Charles and wife Kate, an expert said today
Camilla has taken on a number of duties for the King in recent weeks, and will lead the Royal Family at a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday.
She was also the most senior royal at a memorial service for King Constantine of Greece at Windsor Castle last week after William pulled out at the last minute.
Provisional plans are said to have been made for Camilla to represent the royals at the Chelsea Flower Show in May, as well as at four events in June – the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations, Garter Day, Royal Ascot and Trooping the Colour.
Later today, William will visit the Oval cricket ground to celebrate an Earthshot Prize winner’s new contract supplying sustainable packaging for use in sporting venues.
And former BBC court correspondent Michael Cole insisted to MailOnline today that the Prince of Wales ‘won’t worry about who does what in the Royal Family’.
He added that William would not be jealous of Camilla’s more prominent role – and would be ‘only too glad to see the responsibility for keeping the royal show on the road shared out between a suddenly reduced number of available working royals.’
Mr Cole said that he was fully behind William’s stepmother Camilla stepping up while the King takes a break from public duties during his treatment for cancer.
William has also reduced commitments while looking after Kate and their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis following his wife’s major abdominal surgery.
This year has seen a sudden shortage of frontline royals, with only seven when everyone is in full health – Charles, Camilla, William, Kate, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie.
This follows the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and Prince Philip in 2021; Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping down in 2020; and the disgraced Prince Andrew losing his HRH status.
The lack of Charles and Kate carrying out duties had already sparked concern over the slimmed-down monarchy, but these were then intensified when William could not attend the Constantine memorial last week due to an unspecified ‘personal matter’.
Mr Cole said today: ‘It is right, proper and in accord with protocol for the Queen Consort should take up some of the duties of her husband while he is unable to preside at public-facing events and ceremonies.
‘Prince William has shown nothing but good judgement in recent years, especially while dealing with tricky situations, not least the continuing fall-out from the self-imposed exile to California of his younger brother, Prince Harry.
‘He has shown great wisdom in strictly limiting his reaction to cruel and unjustified jibes and barbs from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, or those purportedly acting and writing on their behalf, even though the attacks on his wife, the Princess of Wales, have been especially hard for him to bear.
‘All of that coming as Prince William confronts the real possibility of his future role as king much earlier in his father’s reign than would have been hoped, adds to his burden.’
He added that ‘heavy responsibilities’ have suddenly been placed upon the shoulders of the 41-year-old heir to the throne, and that he ‘gets on well’ with Camilla nowadays.
The family’s health woes have left William shouldering more of the burden of public duties while at the same time supporting Kate and helping care for their children.
Mr Cole also pointed out that William and Harry had ‘deeply resented’ the ‘third person’ in their parents’ marriage, as Princess Diana famously referred to Camilla in her bombshell interview with the BBC’s Panorama in 1995.
He continued: ‘They begged their father not to marry the woman they saw as the cause of much of their childhood misery. That was before they met her.
‘Prince William could see that Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles was ‘non-negotiable’ as far as their father was concerned. He accepted that she made his father happy as no one else could.
‘That was reality – something his brother Prince Harry may acknowledge too but without ever really accepting or liking Camilla. This is another point of difference between them.’
Mr Cole also said that William has ‘nothing to fear from the Queen taking a more prominent role in the coming days’.
He continued: ‘He is a Prince of the royal blood. His father’s royal lineage dates back to Alfred the Great, his mother’s antecedents to the Stuart King Charles II four centuries ago.
‘His destiny is assured. In due course, if destiny does not decide otherwise, he will become King William V.
‘Being fair-minded, kind and compassionate – characteristics inherited in full from his mother – he will know that Camilla would have been content to remain his father’s mistress, as she loved her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles who remains a close friend to her.’
Mr Cole said Camilla would have been content to remain the Duchess of Cornwall, had it been possible.
But he added: ‘She accepted that the King’s instance that she become Queen even though that had expressly been ruled out by Buckingham Palace ahead of their marriage in Windsor Register Office in April 2005.
‘Queen Camilla has no personal ambitions. She is just doing very well in a role she did not seek and she is proving to be rather good at it.
‘Prince William will have welcomed that, rather than resented her success, knowing the truth – if all members of the royal family shine, then that reflects a lustre on the very institution of a constitutional monarchy that has served this country so well and for so long.’
Hopes were raised earlier this week for Kate’s expected return after Easter when the Army said on its website that she would attend Trooping the Colour on June 8.
But it then emerged that the Army did not seek approval from Kensington Palace before publishing the page, and the reference was then removed from the website.
The announcement caused confusion because there had been no official confirmation.
Only Kensington Palace, Kate’s official office, can announce her attendance at a royal event and confirmation is not expected until nearer the time.
Royal expert Phil Dampier told MailOnline earlier this week that it was ‘not up to the Ministry of Defence to tell us months in advance if she will be there’, especially given speculation surrounding for health as she has not attended a royal event since Christmas Day last year.
On Monday, Kate was seen being driven close to her home in Windsor after huge speculation on social media about the state of her health – with a photo published by the US website TMZ.
Kate left hospital on January 29 and is recuperating at her Adelaide Cottage home close to Windsor Castle and is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter.
Kensington Palace previously said her condition was not cancer-related and that Kate wished her personal medical information to remain private.
Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, and siblings, Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, are thought to be hands-on in helping the Waleses.
Aides previously insisted that Kate would be out of sight until after Easter, but she is likely to be working behind the scenes on her early years projects.
A week after the Princess left hospital, Buckingham Palace announced King Charles III had been diagnosed with cancer and was receiving treatment.
Since the King’s diagnosis, he has postponed all public-facing duties but is continuing with behind-the-scenes work on his red boxes of state papers and some in-person meetings.
On Wednesday, the King held a video call with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and also conducted two diplomatic audiences and writing a message of condolence to Tanzania over the death of the country’s former president.
And Charles was also pictured on Tuesday during a pre-Budget audience with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt at Buckingham Palace, ahead of the financial statement on Wednesday.
Last week it emerged Buckingham Palace had considered plans for Camilla and Kate to hand out honours in a bid to spread the load of royal duties in a slimmed-down monarchy.
Royal aides discussed the possibility of them standing in for the late Queen Elizabeth II when she was still on the throne as the palace faced a huge backlog of investitures following the Covid pandemic.
Now there is speculation the ‘preliminary’ proposals – which in the end did not need to be invoked – could be revived given the King’s cancer diagnosis and the dwindling number of senior working royals.
