Let's face it, 2024 hasn't been up there when it comes to the most joyful of royal years. With King Charles III announcing his cancer diagnosis in February and Kate Middleton sharing her own cancer news in March, it's been a quiet year in terms of royal appearances and happy moments. But when it comes to 2025, The King is looking to get back to basics.
“We’re now working on a pretty normal-looking full overseas tour program for next year," a palace official told the Guardian on Friday, Oct. 25 as King Charles and Queen Camilla ended their tour of Australia and Samoa.
The source added that these plans were "a high for" The King's team "to end on" as they wrapped up the tour. Looking forward to 2025, it was a relief "to know that we can be thinking in those terms, subject to signoff by doctors," the insider said.
King Charles has continued to receive outpatient treatment for his cancer this year, briefly pausing his medical routine to travel to the South Pacific.
"I think it’s great testament to The King’s devotion to service and duty that he was prepared to come this far and he was incredibly happy and very, very determined to do so," the palace official told the newspaper. The source added that for The King, the lengthy overseas visit—which has largely been hailed as a success despite Australia's recent republican sentiments—ended up being a lift for "his spirits, his mood and his recovery."
“In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic," the insider concluded.
While King Charles seems to be back on track for a "normal" year, it remains to be seen whether the Prince and Princess of Wales will carry out overseas visit as usual amid her ongoing recovery from cancer. In 2024, the couple were forced to cancel their first official visit to Italy, and it's yet to be determined if and when that trip will be rescheduled.
However, the princess—who revealed that she'd completed chemotherapy treatment in September—has announced she would make a gradual return to work. In December, Princess Kate will attend her annual Christmas carol concert, and a royal historian tells Marie Claire it's expected the princess "will most likely attend" attend the upcoming state banquet for the Amir of Qatar, also to be held in early December.
