He joked about it in 2018, in front of an assembly of septuagenarians gathered in Brisbane, Australia: “I don’t know about you, but I have little pieces that keep falling out at regular intervals.”
Although he has suffered, for several years, from ailments due to his age, King Charles III, 75 years old, rather enjoys solid health;
just like his mother, Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022 at the age of 96, after a record reign of 70 years.
To discover
Download the Le Figaro Cuisine app for tasty and authentic recipes
Leadership, balance, career, money... A business coaching program for women
Thus, it is for a “benign” problem, which affects “thousands of men each year” as specified in a press release from Buckingham Palace on January 18, that the sovereign will be hospitalized next week: an “hypertrophy of prostate”, for which he will undergo a “corrective procedure”.
“The king's public engagements will be postponed for a short recovery period,” it was said.
Note that this announcement came the same day we learned that Kate Middleton had been admitted to hospital the day before for abdominal surgery, which was successful.
Also read: Kate Middleton hospitalized: her condition is considered “serious”, according to the British press
The fact remains that each alert causes excitement, as the
Daily Mail
points out .
We remember the shock caused by the announcement of his contamination with the coronavirus on March 25, 2020, when he was still “only” the heir to the English throne.
Virus that he contracted again in February 2022.
Fractures and chronic pain
King Charles leaves hospital after one of his polo accidents, (Cirencester, July 1, 1990) Tim Graham / Tim Graham Photo Library via Get
It was especially his physical activity, in his (more) young years, which caused King Charles some injuries.
And in particular his practice of horse riding.
In 1998, he broke his shoulder while hunting.
Three years later, as reported by the BBC, he cracked a rib while galloping behind a fox.
The same year, he remained unconscious for a few moments after falling from a horse during a polo match.
An accident which had already occurred in 1990, and which had caused him to suffer a double fracture of his right arm.
The latter resolving poorly (at the risk of ultimately preventing him from greeting the crowds), it was necessary, three months later, to take a piece of bone from his hip to graft it onto the wound, and seal the wound. all by a metal plate.
The sovereign also injured his larynx during a match, an incident rendering him mute for 10 days in 1981. But fortunately for him, his subjects, airport gates and the animal cause, King Charles stopped polo at the age 57.
According to Prince Harry's memoir,
Spare
, published in January 2023, this sport also gave the sovereign chronic pain in his neck and back.
His famous approach, fingers crossed at the level of his kidneys, would even help him to relieve them.
Also read: Morning sickness, abdominal surgery and temple scar: Kate Middleton's medical history
In 1998, Charles III also underwent laser surgery to relieve knee pain.
The result of years spent traveling across the Balmoral moor, skiing, trekking and running from inaugurations to official celebrations and other jubilees.
The operation required him to walk with a cane for two days.
An accessory that he quickly put away (but which he sometimes discreetly replaces with an umbrella which fools no one).
Read also Alone in Scotland, Camilla gives news of the state of health of Charles III
A corneal laceration
King Charles at the opening of the New British Galleries at The Victoria & Albert Museum.
(London, November 21, 1998) Dave Benett / Getty Images
Stupor and tremors in the United Kingdom: in November 2001, King Charles appeared with a bandage over his left eye.
In question: sawdust which would have penetrated into the august organ, while its owner was sawing a tree branch in his Highgrove estate.
We still wonder if the future sovereign was not internally jubilant at the idea of ensuring some official commitments and other diplomatic negotiations with his pirate look.
Also read: Elizabeth II, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry: all those times the Windsors were hospitalized
A hernia
Highgrove, your decidedly unforgiving universe: in 2003, King Charles underwent an operation for a hernia after having, it seems, gardened in the park of his estate.
An episode which forced the future sovereign to cancel a ski vacation in Klosters, Switzerland.
Read alsoPrince William visited his wife Kate Middleton in hospital
A non-cancerous tumor
King Charles underwent the removal of a non-cancerous tumor on his face in 2008. A “benign” procedure, according to an official press release, revealed by a tiny bandage worn for a few days on the right side of his nose.
His father, Prince Philip, and his mother, Queen Elizabeth, were also treated for the same reasons, in 1996 and 2003 respectively.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Swollen fingers
But the greatest mystery surrounding the health of King Charles today concerns his hands.
Or rather on his swollen fingers, often compared to sausages.
A pathology whose scientific name, dactylitis, is a symptom of water retention which can be due to several factors, according to a doctor interviewed by the
Daily Mail
: "Arthritis, multiple bacterial infections, but also a rate high salt intake, allergies or even autoimmune diseases.
The sovereign has never revealed the causes of this problem.
And even willingly jokes about it:
The Independent
reports that in the documentary devoted to the behind the scenes of his coronation, broadcast on December 26 on the BBC, we hear him whispering to his son William, who helps him to close one of the staples of his ceremonial dress, that he, at least “does not have fingers shaped like sausages” like his illustrious father.
Humor to the tips (of the fingers).