Queen Camilla has spoken about her heartache on a visit to a cancer centre made just days before her husband’s own diagnosis was made public.
She chatted to patients that day and met their families, but could not reveal the secret.
Her Majesty spoke of her dilemma in a short YouTube film made by Buckingham Palace.
It happened when she went to Maggie’s centre at the Royal Free Hospital in London at the end of January 2024.
Days later, on 5 February, Buckingham Palace officially announced that an issue of concern had been found during the His Majesty’s procedure for a benign enlarged prostate - test had shown a form of cancer.
Officials have never said what type of cancer his is.
The Queen, President of the charity since 2008, told its chief executive, Dame Laura Lee. “I remember coming to see a Maggie’s just after The King being diagnosed. Nobody could say anything at the time. That was quite difficult,” she says.
“I almost said something but, you know, I felt that it wasn’t the time to say. [I] looked at everybody who was suffering and all the relations and I think it made me realise even more how important these places were,” she said.
Told that the King's approach to fighting cancer had been an inspiration to many, the Queen said proudly: “Look at my husband. Nothing stopped him. He just said, 'This is my way, I'm going to cope with it.”
“It had never really come back to roost at home and suddenly your husband is diagnosed and you think, 'Goodness, I've been talking to all these people and now I'm the one… who has got to help to look after my poor husband and try to understand it all,” Camilla said.
The King is still being treated. In a message recorded at Clarence House and broadcast by Channel 4 on 12 December last year for Stand Up To Cancer, he said: “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.” It had allowed him to lead a full and active life while under treatment, he
The film marks 30 years of Maggie’s.
It shows patients helped by the charity, and the Queen at the Cheltenham centre in January for the opening of a new extension.
Dame Laura Lee said: “The King’s openness about his diagnosis has undoubtedly helped others to be more open themselves and to now hear The Queen’s completely understandable and natural response as a wife, shines a light on why it is so important that family and friends also get the support they need.”
Camilla has been to 18 of the 27 centres, some of them more than once. The first opened in 1996 in the grounds of the Western General in Edinburgh.
Support is free, psychological, emotional and practical, for patients and for the people close to them. The charity wants 60 centres, one at every major NHS cancer hospital.
It goes up on YouTube at one minute past midnight on Wednesday 19 August 2026.
It features patients helped by the charity, and the Queen at the Cheltenham centre in January for the opening of a new extension.
Dame Laura Lee said: “The King’s openness about his diagnosis has undoubtedly helped others to be more open themselves and to now hear The Queen’s completely understandable and natural response as a wife, shines a light on why it is so important that family and friends also get the support they need.”
The charity wants 60 centres, one at every major NHS cancer hospital.
Robert, thanks for advising us about this new video. It really is true to say that when one person has cancer, the whole family has cancer. We don’t have Maggie’s centres here in N Ireland but we do have some MacMillan centres and we went to one in Belfast when I had Breast Cancer in 2013 (hopefully free of it now but take nothing for granted). … It’s easy to forget that the Royals are human beings like the rest of us and Camilla sounds like she is really showing her human side here. I don’t think that Charles would be an easy patient to deal with so she’s probably been going through a very trying time for many reasons. Whether you like Camilla or not, you’ve got to admit that she is a real trooper and just seems to keep going regardless, and we need to remember that she’s 75 now and needs to take care of herself more. … I hope that Maggie’s succeed in their goal. My husband’s late best friend who lived in Scotland found them extremely helpful as he had to navigate his time with terminal prostate cancer. They were wonderful.
Cancer is always difficult, but often outside circumstances make it worse. Who can one talk to? what can be said? One wants to be sympathetic and often commiserating over a personal diagnosis seems the way forward, but may not be right. My husband was diagnosed with cancer in the middle of the pandemic. The restrictions placed on me and him made everything so much harder. The holistic counseling center at the Cancer institute closed its doors. I was not allowed to be with him during appointments and treatments at first. That was really the worst, not having support, but fortunately, the hospitals and clinics began to realize it was a terrible hardship on families without the staff gaining any protections or benefit and in fact, it made everything worse. The protective measures needed to be adjusted, and so they were. Finally I was allowed to be with him during appointments, masked, checked for fevers, kept 6 feet away… but in the same room at least, I could talk to doctors and take notes. There was still no counseling support, so I hope this initiative in the UK is successful as it sounds like something sorely needed. PS, Hubby has been in remission 5 years now. We are reluctant to say he’s cured, but so it seems.