Prince Harry landed in London alone, arriving from the United States, to be close to his father, King Charles III, who has been diagnosed with cancer.
While his wife Meghan with their two young children Archie and Lilibet remained in the home of the Dukes of Sussex in California.
This is what emerges from the British media after initially there was talk of the arrival of the whole family in the United Kingdom.
"The shock of cancer".
These two words, shock and cancer, summarize the reactions of the opening headlines and front pages of the tabloids of the British popular press to the sensational announcement with which yesterday Buckingham Palace communicated the news of the cancer diagnosis to the nation with unusual immediacy made to King Charles III, 75 years old, sovereign of the United Kingdom for less than a year and a half after a wait lasting seven decades.
News that the most sensationalist newspapers report in the first person ("I have cancer", in large letters), but which also dominate the more mundane opinion papers: such as the Times or the Daily Telegraph with a more sober twin: "The King he has cancer."
In general, despite the alarm and anxiety, a certain optimism prevails regarding the fact that the diagnosis, made following a benign prostate operation performed 10 days ago at the London Clinic, was early, as was assured to the BBC by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
While no one, at least for now, dares to openly hypothesize abdication scenarios which do not actually seem to be on the agenda.
The Mirror, for example, after underlining the general "dismay" at the revelation, cites sources within the palace according to which Carlo - who has returned to his London residence in Clarence House to undergo the announced cycle of therapies, which began yesterday - shows himself "as optimistic as it is possible to be";
and he notes how the prostate operation, which resulted in the timely diagnosis of a tumor located in some other unspecified organ, may essentially "have saved his life".
The Daily Mail also reports an "early" diagnosis, evoking a "combative" king who is anything but willing to give up.
"May your Majesty recover soon, the country needs you", urges the Mail, not without entrusting a laudatory comment to the pen of the royal biographer Christopher Wilson.
Comment in which he also underlines the importance in this phase of Queen Camilla, "the love of his life", elevated to the rank of "rock" of the king and the nation by those same newspapers who in distant years targeted her as " the intriguing lover", the presumed "culprit" of the end of the marriage between Charles and Diana, the intruder.
For further information Agenzia ANSA Having started treatment, Charles III spent the night at home in London - News - Ansa.it After he was diagnosed with cancer (ANSA)
On the same wavelength, among the right-wing newspapers, the Telegraph which also highlights the "epochal" difference between the story of King George VI, grandfather of Charles III and father of Elizabeth II, killed in 1952 at the age of 56 by cancer kept hidden from the subjects until the end, and the current one: marked by an unprecedented effort at transparency in the rapid communication made by the court to the nation at the behest of the monarch.
While from the left, the pro-Labour Mirror takes up the praise of 76-year-old Camilla ("In Camilla we trust"), currently described as the true "head of the Firm", the Windsor dynasty, and her husband's de facto vicar: even before the heir to the throne William.
In the meantime, heir is also dealing with the long convalescence of his wife Kate, who herself underwent an operation in January, a delicate "abdominal" operation of a nature never specified.
And to whom the newspaper now addresses the hope of a reconciliation with the rebel Harry, after the latter's rift and his move to the USA in 2020 together with Meghan: wondering if the father's illness, and the pre-
announced visit of the second son in the next few days, may it be "finally the opportunity for reconciliation" between the two brothers.
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