2025 Expected to Look More ‘Normal’ for Royal Family Than 2024

On the heels of King Charles’ royal tour of Australia and Samoa alongside wife Queen Camilla, a palace official said the public should expect more visits abroad from the couple.

The King, 75, and the Queen, 77, left Samoa on Saturday, Oct. 26, just over a week after landing in Australia on Friday, Oct. 18. As Charles continues to receive treatment for cancer — which he is expected to resume upon his return to the U.K. after reportedly pausing it for the tour — multiple outlets reported that he will resume regular overseas trips in 2025 after a hiatus to prioritize his health following his diagnosis earlier this year.

Royal visits will resume in the spring, according to The Guardian, with all trips subject to doctors’ approval. The outlet reported that the King will fly abroad during both the spring and the fall, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits.

“We’re now working on a pretty normal-looking, full overseas tour program for next year,” a senior palace official said. “Which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms, subject to signoff by doctors.”

The King began outpatient treatment for an undisclosed type and stage of cancer in early February. He initially stopped all public-facing duties — though he continued to work behind the scenes — and resumed front-facing royal work on April 30. This recent tour to Australia and Samoa was his first long-distance visit since his diagnosis, which came following a routine procedure for a benign enlarged prostate. (The palace clarified that the King does not have prostate cancer.)

The King’s tour to Australia and Samoa originally also included a third leg to New Zealand, but those plans were scrapped on the advice of his doctors. Though the couple’s schedule was plenty busy — sometimes including up to 10 engagements between them in a single day — there was a rest day factored in after the King and Queen’s long flight into Sydney on Saturday, Oct. 19, and they only took part in one evening event.

“I think it’s great testament to the King’s devotion to service and duty that he was prepared to come this far and he was incredibly happy and very, very determined to do so,” the palace official continued, adding that Charles “genuinely loved” the tour and “genuinely thrived” on the schedule of engagements planned. The tour lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery,” the official said.

“In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic,” the official added.

Charles reportedly had two doctors traveling with him on the trip — including his personal doctor, The Telegraph reported — and his medical team ensured his “body is properly looked after,” a senior palace official said, according to the outlet. It resulted in a “very successful visit in these circumstances,” the official added.

The nine-day visit included some protests, particularly in Australia, when Charles was heckled on Monday, Oct. 21 by Indigenous lawmaker Lidia Thorpe at Parliament House in Canberra. 

“He was completely unruffled,” according to a royal official speaking to the BBC. “He’s been around a long time. As always, [he] kept calm, carried on. He believes free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and so everyone is entitled to their views.”

He also faced calls to address slavery reparations and continues to face the persistent question of whether Australia will become a republic, leaving him behind as head of state. (Australia is one of 14 countries around the world where Charles is monarch; Barbados was the last country to become a republic, doing so three years ago in 2021.)

The Times quoted a source as saying that the King will not “duck” out of addressing difficult issues: “He is always someone who wants to understand before he says anything,” the source said. “He’s a listener more than he’s a talker. It’s very easy to run away from some of these issues, but the King isn’t one for doing that.”

A palace official added that Camilla is a source of encouragement for Charles, telling the BBC, “The King gets great strength from the Queen being there, not least when she keeps it real.”

Though it’s not yet clear where the King (and presumably the Queen) is headed in 2025, during his final engagement in Samoa, Charles was unexpectedly handed a microphone during a ceremony in the village of Siumu. According to The Times, after thanking Samoa for such a warm welcome, he said, “I shall always remain devoted to this part of the world and hope that I survive long enough to come back again and see you.”

At the end of the tour, Charles and Camilla shared a message on social media marking the end of the historic tour. “As our visits to Australia and Samoa come to a close, my wife and I would like to thank both nations for the warmest of welcomes and for the countless fond memories we will carry in our hearts for many years to come.”

“Even when we are far apart in distance, the many close connections that unite us across the globe and through our Commonwealth family have been renewed, and will remain as profound as they are enduring,” the message continued.

The Times reported that Charles will take a short rest period before resuming a full schedule of engagements as the holidays approach — and then 2025 and the hopeful normalcy it will bring.

“The idea of these tours always is to leave a trace behind,” a palace aide said, per The Times.

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The King’s daughter-in-law Kate Middleton was also diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, following a “planned abdominal surgery” in January. Her diagnosis was announced in March, and she made two official public appearances over the summer — at Trooping the Colour in June and Wimbledon in July — before announcing in a Sept. 9 video message that she had completed chemotherapy. She made an official royal engagement to Southport, England on Oct. 10 alongside her husband Prince William, and is taking photographed and private meetings at Windsor Castle as her gradual return to work continues. She is expected to take part in Remembrance Day events, which are in less than two weeks’ time on Sunday, Nov. 10.