Royal family’s cancer diagnoses reflect ‘annus horribilis’

When the late Queen rose to deliver a speech to mark her fortieth anniversary on the throne in June 1992, she admitted to the assembled dignitaries and the watching nation that her family had suffered an “annus horribilis”.

The sentence was remembered as an acknowledgment that even the staunchly dutiful monarch, who rarely betrayed emotion, had felt the cumulative effects of a series of blows.

Yet the past twelve months have certainly been ranked as one of the most traumatic for the royal family in living memory.

In 1992, revelations included the release of salacious details about the troubled private lives of Diana and Charles, the Prince and Princess of Wales; the divorce of the Queen’s son, Prince Andrew, and the divorce of the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne; and the fire that had raged through Windsor Castle.

The queen’s unusually candid confession was followed by an even more tumultuous period: Five years later, Diana died in a car accident, casting a deep shadow on the lives of Prince William and his brother, Prince Harry.

In recent months there has been a stir over the manipulation of a photo of Catherine with her children, which set social media ablaze with bizarre conspiracy theories after weeks of speculation about the beloved princess’s health.

Catherine’s admission to hospital was announced in January, on the same day as King Charles III’s own diagnosis: an unspecified form of cancer.

The lack of detail about the conditions of either, and the royal family’s silence over the ensuing weeks and months, fueled the feeling that the public had not been told the whole story.

Friday’s statement directly addresses legitimate concerns about transparency, explaining that her condition was initially believed not to be cancer, and that she and Prince William wanted time to explain the news to their children.

Catherine’s diagnosis, and that of the king, came less than a year after the lavish ceremony in Westminster Abbey at which Charles III was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the age of 74, and which the family may have hoped would mark a new event would herald. era of stability.

A few months earlier, Charles had led mourners to his mother’s funeral, after hundreds of thousands of people had queued all night and around the block to pay tribute to her coffin, amid an outpouring of grief.

Family tensions and problems were evident even at the time of the funeral. Prince Andrew did not wear a military uniform as he walked behind his mother’s coffin after being stripped of his royal duties following sexual abuse allegations in a US court case, which the prince has always denied.

Harry returned for his beloved grandmother’s funeral; but his presence only underlined his semi-detached status.

Just a few months earlier, in January, he had published a brutally revealing memoir, Spare, which contained allegations that he and his brother had once clashed, as well as scant edifying details about the loss of his virginity.

Harry has also continued to wage a series of very public lawsuits against the British press, which serve to remind the public of his fraught status. He has also fought – unsuccessfully – with the government in court over whether taxpayers should foot the bill for his personal security when he visits Britain.

King Charles’ brother Prince Andrew remains a constant source of humiliation, with an upcoming Netflix drama set to rehash Emily Maitlis’ devastating interview in which he was questioned about his friendship with now-convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

And Charles had barely had time to establish himself as reigning monarch, the post he had waited for all his life, before his own diagnosis forced him to reduce his public duties.

For William and Catherine, however, all these trials, which have taken away the air of unflappable majesty from the monarchy, will likely pale into insignificance next to the terrifying family drama they now face, in the glare of the public’s gaze.