Queen Camilla Reveals her Private Turmoil of King Charles' Cancer Battle and Explains Why Royals Wanted Secret Out

Queen Camilla has opened up about her secret torment regarding King Charles' cancer diagnosis — and why she wanted his condition made public sooner.

RadarOnline.com can reveal the royal, 79, also praised his courage battling the illness, declaring: "Look at my husband. Nothing has stopped him."

Camilla told of her anguish during a 2024 trip to U.K.-based cancer charity Maggie’s, when she had to keep quiet about the 77-year-old monarch’s diagnosis before it was made public.

She has revealed defiant King Charles declared, "This is my way. I am going to cope with it," when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Camilla added: "It had never really come back to roost at home, and suddenly your husband is diagnosed and you think, 'Goodness.'"

The royal made her comments in a film celebrating 30 years of the Maggie’s drop-in centres.

Speaking about her visit in January 2024, the Queen said: "I remember coming to see Maggie's just after the King had been diagnosed and nobody could say anything at the time. That was quite difficult.

"I almost said something but I felt it wasn't the time to say.

“I looked at everybody who was suffering and all the relations and I think it made me realise even more how important these places were."

The King was diagnosed with cancer in January 2024 and went public with it in February. His treatment is understood to be continuing in a positive direction.

RadarOnline.com recently told how Charles is said to believe the chickens at his beloved Highgrove estate – affectionately housed in "Cluckingham Palace" – and the natural world around them can play a restorative role as he continues living with the illness.

The monarch has spent decades transforming Highgrove, his Gloucestershire home since 1980, into a showcase for his philosophy of living in harmony with nature.

Now, as Charles continues his royal duties following his 2024 cancer diagnosis, the estate's rescue hens, orchards and gardens are said to have assumed an even more personal significance.

A royal source claimed to Radar: "The King has always believed strongly in the healing power of nature, but that belief has become more meaningful during his cancer journey. He genuinely feels that being among the gardens, the trees and his chickens has the power to help him heal.

"The hens might make people smile, but for him there is something deeply calming and restorative about caring for them."

During the warmer months, Highgrove's rescue hens are allowed out from their section of the gardens to wander through the orchards, where visitors can see them scratching and pecking around the estate.

Scott Simpson, retail director for The King's Foundation, which acts as custodian of Highgrove, said about the birds: "They're central to Highgrove life, and it's always lovely to see them happily roaming around, pecking away."

Simpson added that Charles' approach at Highgrove is "all about living with nature and nature's creatures."

The monarch's attachment to the estate was also explored in Finding Harmony: A King's Vision, the Amazon Prime documentary released in February, which showed Charles visiting the Highgrove chicken coop known as 'Cluckingham Palace' and collecting eggs.