Prince William says he wants to carry out duties with a smaller ‘r’ in the ‘royal’

Prince of Wales says he wants to approach engagements differently and to focus on helping people

Prince William has said he wants the monarchy to evolve and for him to carry out his duties with a “smaller r in the royal”.

Speaking at end of a major visit to South Africa where he mixed the informal with traditional elements of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales said he was trying to do things differently.

Continue reading...

Queen Camilla to miss remembrance events due to chest infection

Doctors advise queen not to attend Remembrance Day activities to ensure full recovery from seasonal illness

Queen Camilla will not attend Remembrance Day events this weekend as she recovers from a chest infection, Buckingham Palace has said.

Camilla was due to attend the Royal British Legion festival of remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, and to honour the war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall.

Continue reading...

Prince William describes ‘brutal’ impact of wife’s and father’s cancer diagnoses

Royal says ‘it’s probably been the hardest year in my life’ as Catherine and King Charles underwent cancer treatment

Prince William has described the past year as “brutal” and “probably the hardest year in my life” as he dealt with his wife and father having cancer.

In a video interview to mark the end of his week-long visit of Cape Town in South Africa for the Earthshot prize awards ceremony, William was asked about his year. “Honestly, it’s been dreadful,” he said. “It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.

Continue reading...

King and Prince William’s estates ‘making millions from charities and public services’

Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster likely to make at least £50m from leasing land to services such as NHS and schools, according to investigation

King Charles and Prince William’s property empires are taking millions of pounds from cash-strapped charities and public services including the NHS, state schools and prisons, according to a new investigation.

The reports claim the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which are exempt from business taxes and used to fund the royals’ lifestyles and philanthropic work, are set to make at least £50m from leasing land to public services. The two duchies hold a total of more than 5,400 leases.

Continue reading...

Prince William: ‘I’ll show people how to prevent homelessness’

Heir to the throne responds to criticism about his Homewards programme in two-part ITV documentary

Prince William has said criticism about his privileged lifestyle and many residences drives him to try to end homelessness in Britain.

The heir to the throne was challenged to respond to jibes about his three homes and 135,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate for a two-part ITV documentary airing this week.

Continue reading...

King Charles to resume regular overseas trips in 2025 after cancer hiatus

Royal visits to resume in spring subject to doctors’ approval, official says as trip to Australia and Samoa concludes

King Charles will return to regular overseas trips next year after the hiatus from official foreign duties he has taken since his cancer diagnosis, a palace official said.

Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits, provided that doctors approve the travel.

Continue reading...

Selfies, hugs and protests: King Charles’s new approach in spotlight during ‘fast and furious’ royal tour of Australia

Issue of Aboriginal sovereignty front and centre during head of state’s whirlwind first visit

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Australia after more than 30 official engagements – and a fair share of controversy – packed into just four full days on the ground.

In the stage-managed whirlwind were churchgoers, bushfire scientists, a violinist, authors, dancers, architects, chefs, surf life savers, schoolchildren, republicans and monarchists – and unscripted discordance as activists took up Aboriginal sovereignty directly with the crown.

Continue reading...

Australian senator Lidia Thorpe confronted King Charles with a string of claims. How do they stack up?

The Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman accused the crown of a range of crimes against Indigenous people at Parliament House

Independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe’s forthright haranguing of King Charles during his visit to the Australian parliament has made global headlines.

Reactions have been mixed. Many have criticised Thorpe’s decision to disrupt the event, labelling the 51-year-old’s behaviour as “disrespectful” and “grandstanding”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Barbecue, kangaroo pies and Jimmy Barnes: Charles and Camilla go quintessentially Australian for final day of tour

The royals get on the tongs, banter with surf lifesavers and meet massive crowds at the Sydney Opera House

Just as King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at a barbecue picnic in western Sydney, the strains of the Jimmy Barnes anthem, Working Class Man, wafted mysteriously and humorously above the crowd.

As Barnsey rasped out the opening lyrics of the Aussie classic, Charles and Camilla greeted hundreds of invited guests in the punishing Parramatta Park heat. Muster dogs waited patiently atop barrels and a windmill slowly twirled above a pile of hay.

Continue reading...

Thousands greet royals at opera house – as it happened

This blog has now closed

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with ABC RN about a range of issues – including Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.

Dutton argued that “sometimes people make it all about themselves, and I think that’s what yesterday was.” He said it “didn’t advance anyone’s cause” and “add[s] to the self promotion … that she seeks.”

The vast majority of people have been very welcoming the king’s visit, and I think it’s been an opportunity to underscore the stability in our democracy, our rule of law, separation of powers, all of those institutions that we inherited from our British heritage.

That’s part of the success story of our country, and it’s a good reminder during his visit [that] if we change it, I think we want to be very careful about the system we’re changing to and whether or not we would be a safer, more secure, community and environment for decades to come or not.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer praises Charles after king was heckled in Australia

UK PM says monarch is doing ‘a fantastic job’ after protest by senator in Australian parliament

King Charles is doing a “fantastic job”, particularly in the context of his “health challenges”, the prime minister has said after the royal was heckled by the Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe.

Charles had just finished addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, as part of his five-day tour of Australia with Camilla, when he was approached by Thorpe, who yelled: “This is not your country.”

Continue reading...

Indigenous elder scolds Lidia Thorpe for yelling ‘disrespectful’ comments at King Charles

Aunty Violet Sheridan says the Victorian senator ‘does not speak for me and my people’ and called Thorpe’s yelling of ‘fuck the colony’ inappropriate

A Ngunnawal elder has rebuked Lidia Thorpe over her confrontation with King Charles, saying the Victorian senator doesn’t speak for her people and that her comments of “fuck the colony” were “disrespectful”.

Aunty Violet Sheridan, 69, met the royals as part of an official greeting party on Monday and was sitting near the king in Parliament House when Thorpe “jumped out”, marched forward and started shouting at the royals. Thorpe yelled at the king to “give us our land back”, and shouted “fuck the colony” and “you are not my king”.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: king meets Hephner the alpaca en route to war memorial; Sussan Ley declares purchase of Cessna plane

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have greeted the crowd at the Australian War Memorial, shaking hands and high-fiving kids. Follow the day’s news live

Independent Kooyong MP responds to Victorian government rezoning plan

Monique Ryan, the federal member for Kooyong, was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss the Victorian government’s rezoning plan:

The announcement this weekend from the premier was for nine massive new developments just in the electorate of Kooyong. That’s huge. These could be up to 20 storeys high. Of course that will cause some concern from people who live in the area, who have chosen to live there, because it’s a beautiful part of the world.

We’re not saying we don’t want it, I think people in my part of the world are welcoming it. We’d also like some assurances from the government they will include social and affordable housing in these developments. We really don’t have any detail as of yet and that’s the stuff that’s missing at this point.

Continue reading...

King Charles makes relaxed start to Australian tour but spends less than 10 minutes at lunch in his honour

After a day of rest, monarch appears at Sydney lunch in his honour and gives hosts an hourglass while joking about swift passage of time

King Charles III did not linger long at the luncheon put on in his honour, at the second scheduled event of his short Australian visit. And his gift to the gathering was a reminder of the fleeting passage of time.

There was a menu fit for a king, and very Sydney: chargrilled asparagus and olive dust; marinated octopus and squid ink wafer; barramundi and duck confit.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

King Charles’s visit puts the monarchy’s Australian future back in focus

Hopeful Republicans are calling it the ‘farewell tour’, as the king toes the tried and tested constitutional line

As the king arrives in Australia for the first time as head of state, republican rumblings are once more on the media radar.

Will it be, as the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) optimistically opines, the monarchy’s “farewell tour”?

Continue reading...

In the rain of King Charles: royal couple touch down in Australia

Amid a downpour at Sydney airport, the monarch arrives with Queen Camilla for a five-day visit

Minutes after a drenching downpour came to an end at Sydney airport, King Charles and Queen Camilla stepped on to Australian soil for their first visit as reigning monarchs.

The five-day trip is the couple’s first Australian visit since the King ascended to the throne in 2022 and the first by a reigning monarch since his mother Queen Elizabeth toured the country in 2011.

Continue reading...

King Charles has arrived in Australia for his first visit as monarch. Here’s where to see the royals

Sydney and Canberra are on the royal couple’s itinerary, with opportunities for the public to see them between official functions

King Charles and Queen Camilla have touched down in Australia for the couple’s first visit to the country since Charles became its reigning monarch.

They were last in Australia in 2018, when then Prince Charles opened the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. This shorter, more compact tour will take in just Canberra and Sydney, with dozens of engagements packed into the pair’s four days on the ground.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Republican debate flares ahead of King Charles’ first visit to Australia as head of state

Republic movement hopes to reignite conversation, but monarchist league says current constitution ‘best protects our democracy’

Debates around Australia’s continued future under the British monarchy have flared ahead of King Charles’ first visit to the country since he ascended the throne.

Charles and Queen Camilla will arrive in Australia on 18 October, with stops in Sydney and Canberra during their six-day visit.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

King Charles and royals fail to reveal official gifts for past four years – despite promise to do so

Royal family had pledged to declare all presents received in an annual list, after several controversies

King Charles and his family have failed to reveal their official gifts for the past four years, despite previously promising to publish an annual list.

Palace officials have blamed the pandemic, the change of reign, and then planning for last year’s coronation for their inability to publish details of the gifts received by members of the royal family.

Continue reading...

King Charles won’t stand in the way if ‘Australia wants to become a republic’

Charles said to be adopting ‘anti-confrontational approach’ to republican campaigners before visit

King Charles has said he will not stand in the way if Australia wishes to replace him as the country’s head of state, it has been reported.

Ahead of his visit later this month, the king is said to be adopting an “anti-confrontational approach” to Australian republican campaigners, the Daily Mail reported.

Continue reading...