Britain’s King Charles III celebrates his 76th birthday today by carrying on with royal duties, despite a challenging year for his health.
Treating the day as a working occasion, Charles is visiting a surplus food festival in Deptford, south London, where he will unveil the first of two new Coronation Food Hubs, an initiative under his Coronation Food Project aimed at reducing food waste and aiding families affected by the rising cost of living.
The visit comes at a time when both the king and Kate, the Princess of Wales, are recovering from recent cancer diagnoses. News of Charles’ undisclosed cancer, detected during treatment for an enlarged prostate, was confirmed in February. Despite needing outpatient treatment, he has continued public duties, including a recent visit to France for D-Day ceremonies and a state tour to Australia and Samoa.
This morning, Charles met with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to launch the Deptford hub, while another hub in Merseyside was opened virtually. Celebrations continued with gun salutes in Green Park and the Tower of London, and a special birthday bell-ringing at Westminster Abbey, where Charles was crowned in 2023.
As is tradition, Charles’ official birthday celebrations will occur in June, a custom established in 1748 to guarantee better weather for the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
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Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George) was born on 14 November 1948 and is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born in Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and his investiture was held in 1969.
He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976.
In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer. They had two sons, William and Harry. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, after they had each engaged in well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash the following year. In 2005, Charles married his long-term partner, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles became king upon his mother’s death in 2022. At the age of 73, he was the oldest person to accede to the British throne, after having been the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales in British history. Significant events in his reign have included his coronation in 2023 and his cancer diagnosis the following year, the latter of which temporarily suspended planned public engagements.
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