QUEEN Camilla has opened up about the moment she had to smile, nod and keep schtum—despite “longing to let it out”—in the tense week before King Charles revealed he was being treated for cancer.

Camilla said the secrecy was especially tough because she visited a Maggie’s cancer support centre just days before the King disclosed his diagnosis. In a video released on Aug. 19, she told the charity’s chief executive Laura Lee that “nobody could say anything at the time,” adding: “I almost said something but, you know, I felt that it wasn’t the time to say.”

The visit also sharpened her feelings about the importance of those services. Camilla said seeing “everybody who was suffering and all the relations” made it “realize even more how important these places were.”

Charles, meanwhile, pushed on in the way he knows best: by working. Camilla, 79, said of her husband: “Look at my husband, nothing stopped him. He just said, this is my way I’m going to cope with it.”

The King’s diagnosis was announced on Feb. 5, 2024, with Buckingham Palace saying he would step back from public-facing duties while undergoing treatment, though he would continue state business behind closed doors. The Palace has not revealed what type of cancer he has or details of his treatment.

Within weeks, Charles was back meeting then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in person at Buckingham Palace, where he joked his good appearance was “all done by mirrors,” and admitted the wave of cards and messages had “reduced me to tears most of the time.” He later returned to public events, including Easter at St George’s Chapel and, in June 2024, Royal Ascot and Trooping the Colour. By October 2024, he and Camilla were well enough to travel to Australia for their first state visit there as King and Queen.

In a message aired during Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer broadcast in December 2025, Charles said he had “good news” that, thanks to early diagnosis and treatment, his “schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year.”