King Charles and Queen Camilla’s tour of Australia and Samoa ended over the weekend on a sour note. During their final events in Samoa, Camilla made an ass out of herself by openly laughing at Samoan performers and by staggering up the plane’s stairs before the formal farewell was over. There was also a bummer end on Charles’s part, when he said, in his farewell speech: “I shall always remain devoted to this part of the world and hope that I survive long enough to come back again and see you.” As soon as Charles and Camilla left Samoa, their staff began briefing the Times about Charles and Camilla’s happiness that the tour had gone so well (??) and that 2025 would see a return to a normal touring schedule. Well, about that – the Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column led with this short item:
I hear there’s concern among the King’s medical team after an anonymous palace briefing that he will be returning to a full programme of overseas tours in 2025.
Having skipped his cancer treatment regime to make the latest tour – and with no one certain how his body has coped – it was planned that he would take time off on his return, allowing him to recover and for doctors to carry out a full assessment of his wellbeing.
Basically, Buckingham Palace was way too eager to declare victory and business-as-usual in the wake of an ambivalently-received royal tour, and now the doctors are like “hold your horses, and not just Camilla.” Speaking of, the Daily Beast’s Royalist also got a tip that Camilla is concerned about her husband’s health post-tour:
Friends of Queen Camilla have told the Daily Beast that she is “terrified” and “fearful” cancer-hit King Charles’ is “rushing” his recovery after palace aides briefed newspapers this weekend that his office had told the British Government he was again available for long haul travel. Aides raced to declare his recent trip to Australia and Samoa a great success, despite the fact that any medium-term impact on his health self-evidently has yet to be established.
There have also been question marks around how the queen has coped mentally with the trip. She spent a week before it at a private and exclusive Ayurvedic retreat in India, yet seemed rather unsettled during the trip.
On the final day of the tour, she had what one friend called an “emotional reaction,” seemingly cycling between giggles and tears, after Charles made, in a rather off-hand fashion, a telling remark at a farewell ceremony in Samoa, telling dignitaries: “I shall always remain devoted to this part of the world and hope that I survive long enough to come back again and see you.”
Friends of the king have brushed off any suggestion that the king was, in fact, saying a final farewell or suggesting he might die soon, despite the fact that, prima facie, that seemed to be exactly what he was saying.
But a friend of Camila’s told the Daily Beast: “It was a strange thing to say, and I think Camilla had an emotional reaction. Of course it would. She is terrified. They have had a horrendous year. Now with this return to work, she is understandably fearful her husband is rushing it. She just wants him to slow down and prioritize his health.”
British media have generally portrayed the incident as a fit of giggles due to a non-operational microphone, but this characterization has been questioned online.
This days-long effort to rewrite Camilla’s rudeness as she laughed at the Samoan performers is pretty awful. It was clear that she was being rude and racist. It was clear that she was laughing at her hosts. It was clear that Camilla didn’t want to be there. Camilla hates to travel, hates to go on tours and she was desperately trying to have this tour canceled. Part of me wonders if all of this back-and-forth in the press is a reflection of Charles and Camilla fighting behind the scenes, or some kind of next-level maneuvering because this really was Charles’s last tour and no one wants to say that outloud.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.