The king, who has been diagnosed with cancer, is in generally good health, although he has been injured during sporting activities.
In a statement on Monday, Buckingham Palace said the king is “grateful to his medical team for their prompt intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure.” He had begun a schedule of regular treatments, during which he was advised by doctors to postpone public duties, the palace said.
Previous health problems include contracting the coronavirus and becoming unconscious after being thrown from his horse while playing polo. He also narrowly escaped an avalanche that killed a close friend.
Over the years, concerns have been raised about his ‘sausage fingers’, amid fears that they could be due to fluid retention or other conditions. But Charles had been aware of his swollen fingers for decades. “It really does look surprisingly tasty and has sausage fingers just like mine,” he wrote to a friend after the birth of his first son, William, in 1982.
In March 2020, Charles, then 71, contracted Covid-19 before vaccinations were available, but had only mild symptoms. He isolated in Birkhall, Aberdeenshire, away from the then Duchess of Cornwall, who tested negative, and continued to work at his desk. He lost his sense of taste and smell for a while and later spoke of the “strange, frustrating and often unsettling” experience of being without friends and relatives during lockdown.
He contracted Covid for a second time in February 2022, despite being triple vaccinated.
Charles has remained active with hill walking and gardening, but has suffered back pain, attributed to numerous falls over the years. A lover of organic food, he launched his own food brand, Duchy Originals, in 1990, which is now run as Waitrose Duchy Organic.
In March 2019, as Charles and Camilla embarked on an official tour to the Caribbean, they were photographed by the paparazzi relaxing in their swimsuits on a beach in Barbados. Charles was praised for his lithe figure and his trendy 12-year-old floral trousers.
In 2008, he had a benign growth removed from the bridge of his nose during a routine procedure, and in 2003 he underwent hernia surgery at the private King Edward VII Hospital in London, the hospital favored by the royal family. He joked to waiting media “hernia today, gone tomorrow” after he was discharged the next day.
Charles never traveled on royal tours without a special pillow, usually a checked pillow, which he used to ease back pain. During state banquets at Buckingham Palace, a red velvet one is always placed on the king’s chair.
In 2003, during an engagement at a Sikh temple in Southall, west London, he told the congregation that he would need a little of their expert care as he sat on the hard floor. “I don’t think I’ve ever needed an osteopath so much as I do now,” he joked. “My back isn’t quite set up to sit on the ground, so I may need some help when I go outside.”
Charles has been an advocate of alternative and complementary medicines, including homeopathy, and has urged health ministers to take a more holistic approach to tackling health problems. He was patron of the regulatory body, the General Osteopathy Council.
Charles retired in 2005 after more than 40 years of playing polo, having suffered an impressive number of injuries. In 1980, he was thrown and kicked by his pony during a polo match in Windsor and required six stitches. A crescent-shaped two-inch scar on his left cheek testified to the incident. On another occasion he was struck in the throat, causing him to lose his voice for ten days.
Charles resisted pressure to give up polo after collapsing at the end of a match in Florida in 1980 and having to be put on a saline drip.
In 1988, while skiing off-piste in Klosters on one of the most dangerous slopes in Europe, he narrowly escaped the avalanche that killed his friend Major Hugh Lindsay, a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth II. Charles managed to jump out of the way to reach a ledge and helped save the life of another friend, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, by digging her out of the snow and talking to her to keep her conscious until an helicopter arrived. He later recalled the horror of the avalanche and said he had never seen anything so terrifying.
In 1990 he broke his right arm in a fall during a polo match. Three months after the fall, a second operation was necessary because one of the fractures did not heal. In 1992 he underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee – again after a polo injury. In 1993 he was injured again during a match in Windsor, aggravating an old back injury.
He also broke a rib when he fell from his horse in a hunting accident in 1998. Despite the inconvenience, a few weeks later the prince insisted on trekking in the Himalayas during an official visit to Nepal and Bhutan. Three months later, in October 1998, he was back in the hospital and underwent laser keyhole surgery on the cartilage of his right knee due to wear and tear from years of sports and exercise.
In June 2001 he broke a small bone in his shoulder after falling from his horse during a fox hunt. A few months later, in August, he was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital when his horse threw him during a polo match. He was taken to hospital on a stretcher as a precaution.
Charles also strained the tendons in his wrist while salmon fishing in Scotland and while tending his gardens he once accidentally hit his thumb with a hammer and broke his finger, almost severing the tip.
Charles has said that as a child he was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital to prevent his appendix from ‘exploding’. On a later visit he stated: “I got here just in time before the thing exploded and was happily operated on and cared for by the nurses.”