(DailyEmailNews.com) – Underscoring his current health challenges, King Charles III will not attend an international commemoration of the D-Day landings’ 80th anniversary that will include Joe Biden.
While Buckingham Palace did not provide a formal statement, official sources revealed that this move was intended to safeguard the king’s health and allow his recovery to continue without setbacks.
Despite this, the king plans to join British veterans in Normandy tomorrow morning and was present at a ceremony in Portsmouth today.
Portsmouth is notable as the departure point for many of the 156,000 Allied troops who landed in France in 1944.
The king, who is still recovering, changed his schedule to arrive after his son, the Prince of Wales, at this event.
At his first public address since his cancer diagnosis, King Charles described the D-Day operation as the “greatest amphibious operation in history,” praised the troops’ “courage, resilience, and solidarity” during their fight from the “stormy swell to shore” and declared the world was “eternally in debt” to them.
At the same ceremony, Prince William shared a touching passage from the diary of D-Day participant Capt. Alastair Bannerman, which was originally written for his wife.
Although King Charles will take part in a morning ceremony in Ver-Sur-Mer with British troops, his son William will represent the senior royals at an afternoon event at Omaha Beach.
This latter event will host Biden among 25 world leaders. Official sources said that attending both events might have been too much for the king at this point in his recovery.
In a notable departure from royal protocol, King Charles publicly confirmed his cancer diagnosis earlier this year and revealed a personal struggle rarely shared openly by the royal family.
In late April, King Charles resumed public duties in an effort to be transparent about his ongoing cancer treatment and cautious to manage his commitments to support his health.
The palace emphasized the need for a “carefully calibrated” schedule to protect his well-being during this time.
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