King will be most concerned for ‘heroine’ Camilla after cancer diagnosis, friends say

The King will be most concerned for the Queen in the aftermath of his cancer diagnosis, his closest friends have said.

Dame Julia Cleverdon, who was chief executive of one of the King’s charity organisations when he was Prince of Wales, and Lord Dobbs, a friend of the royal couple, discussed the repercussions of the diagnosis on the rest of the Royal family.

Dame Julia, who worked closely with the monarch while running Business in the Community, said: “The real heroine, it seems to me in all of this, is Queen Camilla ... he will be most concerned, I suspect, about the effect on her and the conversations and the load that she will take as he goes through his treatment.”

The King began regular treatment as an outpatient at a London hospital on Monday, but has not revealed what type of cancer he has or what kind of treatment he is undergoing.

However, the Palace confirmed that he did not have prostate cancer after the illness was discovered during his corrective surgery for a benign enlarged prostate.

Dame Julia, who was also a special adviser to the Prince’s Charities, the King’s non-profit organisation, is such a trusted friend that he rang her within hours of Princess Diana’s death for advice on how to speak to his two sons.

She has gradually reduced her workload over the years but at one point was said to speak to the then heir to the throne twice a day. She was appointed DCVO in 2008 at the personal direction of Elizabeth II.

Dame Julia told the Today programme that the King “loves to work” and will be “very disappointed at the disruption to his plans” from his cancer diagnosis.

“He will be awash with the things that he can’t do as he steps back, but he will be absolutely clear and totally determined to do everything he can to recover fast and well,” she added.

The 73-year-old also hailed the support that the rest of the Royal family has shown him, including his sister the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Waleses.

“I’m absolutely sure that this reign will continue … and that he will be A, knowledgeable, B, determined and C, absolutely clear that the show will go on,” she said.

Lord Dobbs, who was born an hour apart from the King and shared a 75th birthday party with him last year, praised the unprecedented revelation of his private medical diagnosis as “a modern look from a modern monarchy about a very old-fashioned problem”.

The author and Tory peer, a prostate cancer survivor, said: “The great thing about what he’s doing by sharing all of this with us is he’s encouraging us to come out of the shadows, not to treat it as something which is so appalling you can’t face up to it because getting an early diagnosis … gives much greater survivability.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “I’m surviving of cancer, my brother has survived six different cancers, it’s not what it was 20 years ago.”

The House of Cards author added: “He’s in a very good position to deal with this, he’s got very good genes. He’s a very fit person, he exercises every day and he has everything to live for.

“He’s obviously enjoying the job that he’s waited for so long, and he’s surrounded by his extraordinary family.

“Every picture and every smile shows the extraordinary relationship that he has with his wife, Queen Camilla … and Harry is flying over to meet with his father. Could this be the moment that these frayed threads of the family could be repaired?

“It’s incredible that the only reason that the Royal family would be under pressure is because people want them so much., because the Royal family as a monarchy is an institution which is extraordinarily not only surviving but flourishing right now under Charles and Camilla.”