Prince William reportedly asked his father, King Charles III, to scale back his royal duties to avoid exhaustion and spend more time with his family, according to revelations from a new royal book.
Royal biographer Robert Jobson claims in The Windsor Legacy that the Prince of Wales, “shaken to the core” by his father and wife’s cancer diagnoses, asked King Charles III to lessen his royal workload — a request the monarch reportedly denied.
In his book, Jobson also wrote that both the Prince and Princess of Wales "became more religious" as they quietly dealt with the tumultuous year.
"Never known as a regular worshipper, William now attends church more frequently than in the past, though as privately as possible," Jobson wrote.
The book also revealed that the king had been "typically stoical about his mounting levels of pain" before his cancer diagnosis.
A senior royal shared with Jobson that the situation "had worsened so dramatically" that a doctor was summoned.
"The king was given morphine (one of the strongest painkillers available), fitted with a catheter and taken to Aberdeen Hospital," Jobson claimed.
He noted, "The cancer, however, was not discovered until a few months later, in January last year, while doctors were in the process of treating the king for an enlarged prostate."
It is revealed that it was a “malign twist of fate” for Prince William.
Jobson added that although there’s "an underlying tension" between the King and William regarding their differing approaches to duty and tradition, they maintain a solid working relationship.
"The king happily consults him and largely trusts him to do what is right," wrote Jobson.
Jobson also noted that William urged his father to slow down amid treatment, while palace aides revealed the King had been moved to tears by the outpouring of global support.
In February 2024, Buckingham Palace revealed King Charles’ cancer diagnosis, followed by Kate Middleton’s own announcement a month later.
