Queen Camilla may have stood in for King Charles III at the Royal Maundy Service at Worcester Cathedral Thursday in a historic first, but the ailing monarch made his presence known via a pre-recorded audio message that was played during the event.
“The Maundy Service has a very special place in my heart,” Charles said in the message, which, according to the BBC, was recorded at Buckingham Palace in mid-March. “It is for me a great sadness that I cannot be with you today,” he said.
Charles has stepped back from many of his public-facing royal duties in the wake of his cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment, and the Maundy Thursday service is considered the most important engagement he has been absent from so far.
Camilla distributed the traditional Maundy money pouches to 75 men and women in a symbolic nod to Jesus washing his disciples’s feet at the Last Supper, with the number of recipients correlating with Charles’s age. In his audio message, Charles stressed the importance of community.
“We need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need,” he said.
He called the recipients “wonderful examples of such kindness; of going way beyond the call of duty and of giving so much of their lives to the service of others in their communities.”
Though he did not directly reference his own health or that of his daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, who last week shared her own cancer diagnosis with the public, Charles underlined his commitment to his role, pledging to “not to be served, but to serve” with “my whole heart.”
Charles and Camilla are both expected to attend services at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Sunday for Easter, though Kate, Prince William, and their children will not be present among the royal family for the holiday.
Read More From Vanity Fair
Anne Hathaway on Tuning Out the Haters and Embracing Her True Self
Rose Hanbury Sends Legal Notice to Stephen Colbert After His Affair Joke
The Confessions of an Art Fraudster Extraordinaire
The Evolving Power of the Princess of Wales
The Best TV Shows of 2024, So Far
From the Archive: The Fatal Mauling of the Man Who Loved Grizzlies (2004)
Stay in the know and subscribe to Vanity Fair for just $2.50 $1 per month.
The post King Charles Shares Message of “Great Sadness” as He Misses Traditional Ritual appeared first on Vanity Fair.