Even before King Charles was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, his wife, Queen Camilla, was, as Us Weekly put it, his “fiercest ally.” But now, post-diagnosis, she’s even more so—and for a time led the royal family as three of its four most senior members were out of commission earlier this year: the King, battling cancer; the Princess of Wales undergoing a planned abdominal surgery (that later turned into a cancer diagnosis of her own); and Prince William taking care of his wife and their three young kids. During that awful time period, it was Camilla who kept the ship afloat, often stepping in for her husband at events as he received treatment for cancer, before his eventual return to public life on April 30 after about three months away.
