KONTAN.CO.ID - LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - King Charles is due to make his first public appearance at a royal event since his cancer diagnosis on Sunday. Still, the likely absence of son Prince William and the heir's wife Kate will spotlight how depleted the monarchy has become. Buckingham Palace said the 75-year-old monarch would attend the traditional Easter Sunday church service at Windsor Castle alongside his wife Queen Camilla, one of the annual engagements usually attended by all the senior royals. However, William, Kate, and their children George, 10, Charlotte, 8, and Louis, 5, will not attend after the Princess of Wales revealed last week that she had begun preventative chemotherapy for cancer following abdominal surgery in January.
NOT A GOOD IDEA
"Well, I think the 'slimmed-down' was said in a day when there were a few more people around to make that seem like a justifiable comment," the king's younger sister Princess Anne said in an interview last year. "It doesn't sound like a good idea from where I'm standing, I have to say. I'm not quite sure what else ... we can do." Of the remaining official working royals - those who carry out duties for the king, such as opening new buildings, giving out honors, and meeting foreign dignitaries - many are now from the late Queen Elizabeth's generation. Baca Juga: UK Royal Kate Having Chemotherapy After 'Huge Shock' of Cancer Discovery Princess Alexandra, 87, her cousin and long-time friend, is rarely seen in public nowadays, while Elizabeth's other cousins Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, and Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, are 88 and 79 respectively. Princess Anne often tops the list for being the hardest-working royal but she will turn 74 this year. Her son Peter Phillips said this week she was probably working a lot harder than she had expected. "She's still doing overseas trips and turning around in 24 hours which is pretty hard on most people ... but when you're in your 70s and doing that it's pretty remarkable," he told Sky News in Australia. He said there was "definitely a short-term pressure on certain members of the family to continue to be out and about". As well as his mother, he noted the amount being done by Camilla and Charles' younger brother Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Baca Juga: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Hits Out at 'Hateful' Abuse During Pregnancies Royal biographer Claudia Joseph said while Camilla and William had done a "sterling job" in the absence of Charles, it would not have been easy. "On a personal level, it's going to be awful for the royals," she said. "Obviously, on a practical level, it makes things difficult." Although polls show most Britons remain generally supportive of the monarchy, they also suggest that the majority is shrinking, with a growing gap between enthusiastic older people and indifferent younger generations. TAG: