A royal correspondent has claimed the press were pressured by the Palace to make King Charles’ recent health update sound more positive than it was.
Veteran Fleet Street journalist Robert Jobson made the claim in a recent interview with The Royalist Podcast. The journalist, who was once dubbed the Godfather of Royal Reporting by the Wall Street Journal, said Palace aides leaned on him and other members of the press to present the King’s health update in as positive a light as possible.
“I think it was overhyped in December. I think that the Palace were over-emphasising the ‘good news’. The press spokespeople were saying, ‘Oh, this is good news’. They were trying to say to the journalists at the time, ‘Don’t interpret it any other way. This is good news’,” he said.
“The King is living with cancer. He will live with cancer. There is not any prospect, I think, of anything other than him living with cancer. And that says it all.”
The latest revelation comes days after royal expert and journalist Tom Sykes made the extraordinary claim that “power is bleeding from King Charles to Prince William because Charles is dying”.
“This always happens when a monarch is terminally ill,” the man behind The Royalist substack declared. “The heir’s instincts start to shape outcomes long before the formal transfer of authority arrives.”
It should be noted that details about Charles’ health woes have been scarce since he went public in February 2024 to say he had been diagnosed with a form of cancer, discovered during treatment for an enlarged prostate.
In December 2025, he shared the “good news” that “thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctor’s orders’” his own schedule of cancer treatment could be “reduced” in the new year.
“Indeed, today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders’, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year,” the King said in a statement.
“This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the 50 per cent of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.”
The latest developments come just weeks before King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary.
Former royal gardener Jack Stooks recently revealed to Marie Claire that the Monarch and his second wife usually celebrate their anniversary at Birkhall near the Balmoral Estate.
The former staffer said it would be a low key affair with just the couple, and maybe a few family members in attendance.
“It’s not a huge house and there’s a nice drawing room. There’s a small dining room they might even just have like a crab souffle or something completely simple,” he told the publication.
Jack also explained that the couple choose to celebrate at home as it is “difficult” for them to go out in public.
“It’s not that easy that they can go and have a nice meal in a restaurant and be left alone,” he said. “The King is also quite specific about his eating pattern, and they don’t eat huge amounts as well.”
“They’re not like these sort of people that will go and have a full on meal and a starter and a main course and the pudding,” the former royal gardener continued. “I think they would just rather have their chef prepare a really nice meal at home that they’re used to and that they enjoy.”
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