Scandals, illness and discord leave UK royals exhausted

The heir Prince William and his wife Kate are expected to be absent from King Charles's first public appearance at a royal function on Sunday, which will highlight the monarchy's current state of disarray.  

According to Buckingham Palace, the 75-year-old monarch and his wife Queen Camilla will attend the customary Easter Sunday church service at Windsor Castle. This yearly event is often attended by all of the senior royals. 

William, Kate, and their kids George, 10, Charlotte, 8, and Louis, 5, won't be there, though, since the Princess of Wales said last week that she had started cancer preventive chemotherapy after undergoing stomach surgery in January. 

Erin Hill, senior royal editor of People magazine, stated that King Charles "really wanted to have a slimmed-down monarchy when he took on the throne but he never could have anticipated slimming down to where it is now." "The royal family is going to have a difficult time in the near future." 

Charles wanted the institution to be "slimmed down" in order to refute claims that it was bloated and that distant relatives were living off taxpayer-funded handouts. 

However, his inner circle now has huge gaps, most notably due to the 39-year-old younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, moving to the United States three years ago. 

Prince Andrew, 64, the younger brother of Charles, was expelled from public life in 2019 due to his association with the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Princess Anne, the younger sister of the monarch, stated in an interview last year, "Well, I think the'slimmed-down' was said in a day when there were a few more people around to make that seem like a justifiable comment."  

"I must admit that, from where I stand, it doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm not sure what more to say. We are capable. 

Many of the surviving formal working royals, or those who do tasks for the king including presenting awards, inaugurating new buildings, and hosting foreign guests, are now members of Queen Elizabeth's generation.  

Her cousin and close friend Princess Alexandra, 87, is no longer frequently spotted in public, whereas Elizabeth's elder cousins Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, and Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, are 88 and 79 respectively. 

Princess Anne often tops the list for being the hardest-working royal but she herself will turn 74 this year. Her son Peter Phillips said this week she was probably working a lot harder than she had expected. 

“She’s still doing overseas trips and turning around in 24 hours which is pretty hard on most people … but when you’re in your 70s and doing that it’s pretty remarkable,” he told Sky News in Australia. 

He said there was “definitely a short-term pressure on certain members of the family to continue to be out and about”. As well as his mother, he noted the amount being done by Camilla and Charles’ younger brother Prince Edward and wife Sophie, now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. 

Royal biographer Claudia Joseph said while Camilla and William had done a “sterling job” in the absence of Charles, it would not have been easy. 

"It's going to be terrible for the royals personally," she remarked. "Obviously, it makes things difficult in a practical sense."  

While surveys indicate that the majority of Britons still support the monarchy, they also indicate that this majority is becoming smaller due to a widening divide between younger generations who are uninterested and older generations who are passionate. 

The next youngest royals in the workforce, after William and Kate, are Edward, who turned 60 this month, and Sophie, who will do the same next year.  

The children of William and Kate won't join the ranks for at least ten years after that. 

Tina Brown, a royal author, claimed that William and Kate were under "unmanageable pressure" due to the monarchy's seeming slender state.  

“Catherine is the most popular member of the royal family after William,” she wrote in the New York Times this week. “The future of the monarchy hangs by a thread, an