On May 6, 2023, Charles III was crowned King after his mother, the Queen, passed away on September 8, 2022. Recently news has broken that King Charles III has been diagnosed with an unreleased type of cancer which could affect British history forever.

While his reign isn’t the shortest in history it still seems minuscule compared to the last monarch, Elizabeth II who reigned for close to 80 years, while Charles has been only reigning for one year and five months. He waited 73 years to become King, becoming the longest-serving British heir apparent as well as being the oldest person to succeed to the throne since the 1830s. Can you imagine waiting all that time just to be told you have a deadly illness that has no cure?  

“I’d say more of a shock because I didn’t think there was a chance of such a turnaround so quickly, now granted it’s the monarch, he has access to some of the best health care on the planet,” says Mr.Wood, a Kilbourne History teacher.

 King Charles II may have amazing health care but cancer is different, some people have it more severe than others and the treatment is intense. Data shows that 608,570 people die from cancer each year in just the United States. This news might have been taken better if people were able to understand the situation fully but the Palace has yet to release what type of cancer the king has, creating worry and confusion over the secrecy. 

“They said they caught it early, they didn’t say what it was so there’s always a chance that he could make it out relatively unscathed, we don’t know. I obviously feel bad for the Royal family because for Great Britain that’s someone they look up to; it’s more or less like the family everyone has” says Wood.

I’m sure many people are grieving the news with fear of having a new monarch so new since losing the last one, others have mixed emotions. King Charles III isn’t the most popular member of the Royal Family because of his past relationships and events that he caused. 

For most it is common knowledge of what happened to Princess Diana, she was killed in a car accident being chased by paparazzi with her boyfriend at the time, Dodi Fayed, But it goes much deeper than that when it comes to Diana’s previous relationship with Charles. In November 1977, Charles and Diana first met at her home in Althorp while Charles was dating her sister, Diana was only sixteen years old when they first met while Charles was twenty-nine years old. They then meet again three years later, and they officially start to have a romantic relationship, but then only one year later they are engaged.

 “We met 13 times and we got married.” A direct quote from Diana on her relationship with Charles. In July of the next year, they officially tied the knot, setting the way for a doomed marriage, since Charles had shared later that he was pressured into proposing by his father. Later Diana would share she knew on the day of her wedding of Charles and Camillas’ close relationship and that Camilla had been invited to the wedding. 

Charles and Camilla’s relationship started in the 70s when they dated briefly and Charles courted Camilla until he had

to return to the Navy. Camilla got married soon after Charles departed but her feelings for him never fully left. They reconnected two years after Charles and Diana’s second son, Harry was born. In December 1992 Charles and Diana officially split, but calls between Charles and Camilla were leaked of personal conversions happening while they were both still married, following Diana and Charles’ divorce Camilla also filed for divorce against her husband.

This series of events changed the way the public viewed Charles, from when Diana passed to now. TikTok is a popular social media outlet where you might not think Princess Diana would be a big topic but there are more than 276,900 videos related to her. The videos range from edits to conspiracies and most if not all of them are in her favor, Charles is often posed as the villain in her story. With the news of Charles’ cancer, TikTok has very different responses, on one hand, news accounts are stating the facts and on the other hand, meme accounts are stating it’s karma for cheating and he got what was coming for him.

Through all this tragedy and negativity some good can still come out of this situation. Since the diagnosis, the media has been wondering if Harry, Charles’ second son who has been living in California ever since he married well-known actress Meghan Markle would visit his father. Both Harry and Meghan have spoken up about their treatment within the family and why they left making the relationship between Charles and Harry strained. Recently Harry told ABC NEWS that he visited his father on February 5 right when he found out about the diagnosis, he also speaks on how the illness might bring the family together “I think any illness, any sickness brings families together. I see it time and time again, and it makes me very happy”. 

Now that so much new information is coming out perhaps the Palace will release the type of cancer and more insight into the King’s treatment to help ease the minds of England’s residents, But for now, we’ll just have to speculate and keep a close eye on his health and the effects it has on how England will function.