The past few months have showcased a great change in the behaviour and attitude of the Royal Family with regards to royal engagements and public announcements.
King Charles decided to publicly share both his cancer diagnosis and prostate surgery operation with the public earlier his year, in the hope of being transparent and to raise awareness of health issues in society.
Group editor of Women & Home Magazine, Hannah Fernando told ‘The Royal Beat’ programme there has been a shift in the way the Royal Family displays public emotion since Charles became King.
She said: “I get the sense this is a real moment in time, a real shift for the royals. We are seeing this level of emotion.”
Buckingham Palace shared a sweet video of King Charles opening his cards from well-wishes and becoming teary-eyed at the kind messages received.
Another change in a recent royal duty was Prince William’s announcement by Kensington Palace, stating he had to pull out of the memorial service for the late King Constantine of Greece for a “personal matter”.
Commenting on the vulnerability of the royals, Hannah said: “We are seeing William step away from royal duties, we are seeing different things happening that we never saw under the Queen that sort of emotion and those feelings were kept fairly close.”
She added: “So to see Charles looking so well but also so moved. I just think it is very real.”
King Charles even shared a joke with Rishi Sunak during his first meeting in person since his health diagnosis.
During the meeting, King Charles confessed to the Prime Minister: “I’ve had so many wonderful messages and cards, it has reduced me to tears most of the time.”
When Mr Sunak greeted the King saying “Nice to see you”, this prompted King Charles to joke, retorting “A bit of a gap… I’m afraid”.
For a few weeks, Prince William kept a low profile as he took a short break from engagements to look after Princess Kate as she continues to recover from her planned abdominal surgery.
But there has been more of an insight into how Prince William is defining himself as heir to the throne, claims another royal commentator, believing William is “stepping up” to his duties alongside caring for his family.
Speaking about the Prince’s public profile, Royal commentator, Justin Vovk said: “This has certainly been the most active and engaged [William has been] on events of this scale that we have ever seen, and we can attribute that to his role as heir.”
The McMaster University PhD candidate also added: “William really seems to be stepping out and looking to establish his own identity as Prince of Wales in a way that he’s never had the opportunity to before, and one that supports causes that are important to him but are also still in line with the overall values of the monarchy at the moment.”
The episode mentioned above of The Royal Beat is available on True Royalty TV from March 1.
