King Charles and Queen Camilla had two very different travel plans at the start of their royal tour of Australia and Samoa.
On Friday, Oct. 18, the royal couple arrived in Sydney, Australia, appearing together during a formal welcome. However, as People reports, the pair left London, England on separate flights—and for a very specific reason.
According to the outlet, Court Circular—the official record of royal engagements—notes that King Charles departed London on Oct. 17 sans Queen Camilla, whose name does not appear on the record alongside her husband’s.
The Queen, People reports, left separately and, unlike the King, enjoyed a private vacation in-between stops to help ease her reported and well-known fear of flying.
“Queen Camilla is said to have a fear of flying and has previously departed early for royal tours, breaking up the trips with a stop at a favorite spa,” People reports. “The Queen is known to go to the Soukya holistic health center near Bangalore, India, a residential medical institute focused on ‘healing, prevention or rejuvenation’ through naturopathy, homeopathy, yoga, Ayurveda and more.”
King Charles III And Queen Camilla arrive at Sydney Airport for their official welcome on October 18, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The trip kicks off a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa—the first tour of a Commonwealth since Charles became King following the death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.
The whirlwind trip is also the most significant work trip King Charles has taken since announcing he was diagnosed with an unspecified type of cancer earlier this year in February.
As Marie Claire previously reported, the monarch has paused his chemotherapy treatments during the length of the royal tour, traveling instead with two doctors who will help monitor his health and wellness during the visit.
“He will pause the cancer treatment he has been having since February,” the Times reported, adding that during his overseas travel the monarch will be “monitored closely.”
According to a palace insider who spoke to the Times, the “decision to pause treatment and resume it when he returns to Britain followed advice from doctors.”
Queen Camilla and King Charles.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The trip also marks a return to Australia for King Charles, who visited the country in March 1983 with his then-wife, the late Princess Diana.
According to various reports, Charles grew increasingly frustrated with Princess Diana during the trip, which came early in their relationship and was described as a “terrifying baptism of fire” for the then-Princess of Wales.
As crowds were introduced and soon fell in love with Diana, Charles reportedly grew resentful of his bride’s newfound fame. “Victor Chapman, the press secretary on the tour, got used to late-night phone calls from Charles complaining about the scant coverage of himself in the press compared to the hagiographic acres accorded of his wife,” Tina Brown wrote in The Diana Chronicles.
“He took it out me,” Diana told the royal biographer of her husband. “He was jealous; I understood the jealousy but I couldn’t explain that I didn’t ask for it.”
