King: 'Wonderful messages' since cancer diagnosis 'reduced me to tears'

The Prime Minister, Your Majesty. Good evening, Your Majesty. Very nice to see you. And wonderful. Well, yeah, a bit, but wonderful. Wonderful to see you looking so well. Yeah, well, it's all done by Neuros. Well, we're all behind you. The country's behind you. I know, because I've had so many wonderful messages and cards. I can imagine. It's reduced me to tears, mostly. Well, I can imagine. But everyone is behind you. And it's also, it's been nice to see the spotlight that it's shone on the work that charities do in this area, which I'm sure you'll be about as well. Yeah, I hear that there's been a lot more attention, interest on those main wonderful cancer charities, many of which have been patriot for years. They do incredible work up and down the country. They do. It's actually nice to have that record. And Royal Correspondent Laura Bundock is here. And well, I mean, the first thing to say is good news that he is well enough to do that. Yeah. And I think the fact the King has allowed a camera in, albeit very briefly, for just under a minute, is really unusual. But we're in unusual times, aren't we? The King appeared in good spirits, didn't he? Cheerfully greeted Rishi Sunak, said how touched he was by all the cards and the messages of support reducing him to tears. And Rishi Sunak talking about the importance of cancer charities, and the King acknowledging, yes, they do a great job, and that he'd been patron of many of them, including, as we know, the Macmillan Cancer Support, and a long-term supporter of Marie Curie as well. I think the decision to show us this audience is significant, and would certainly have been made by the King himself. He knows, like his late mother once famously said, you have to be seen to be believed. And the trouble is, with a cancer diagnosis and treatment, that's just not possible. He's been told by the medics to cancel all his puppet-facing engagements. But we know that his state business, this sort of thing, the weekly audiences can continue. And this weekly audience normally is very private. It stays within palace walls. So again, this is an openness that the King is showing, this new approach, sharing his diagnosis, sharing these moments as well. In bygone days, this simply wouldn't have happened. There is, of course, a danger, though, by being so open and having these sorts of moments. It does expose the King, with his continuing cancer treatment, to intense and possibly intrusive speculation about his condition. Because there's a lot we don't know. We don't know his diagnosis, prognosis, or indeed what kind of treatment he has. But I think what this showed us today, the King as well, and the palace very keen to show, it's business as usual. Although, as we all know, at the moment, it's anything but. Yeah, and do you make the point, I mean, we assume the treatment goes on, but without a running commentary from the palace? Yeah, we know he's having regular treatments. But we don't know what kind of treatment. And we've been told not to expect that kind of commentary. The King wants certain things, understandably, to get private, to be kept private. And so we don't know how often he's having these treatments. And we don't know what sort of treatment. But we do know he's spending a lot of time in between those treatments at homes like Sandringham in the quiet of the countryside. OK, Laura, thanks very much indeed.