The King last spoke publicly about his health during the opening of the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, where he acknowledged that “half the problem is detecting it in time,” but reassured well-wishers that he was “not too bad” and added, “There’s always hope down the road.”

The unfounded reports also coincided with flags being flown at half-mast across parts of the UK on Friday, October 3 — a move that some social media users wrongly interpreted as a sign of royal mourning.

King Charles’ calendar of public engagements currently shows no official events scheduled for the coming weeks. However, a recent press release confirmed that His Majesty and Queen Camilla will undertake a state visit to the Holy See later this month.

The statement read: “The King and Queen will join His Holiness Pope Leo XIV in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year.”

Both Buckingham Palace and royal correspondents have urged the public to disregard the false reports circulating online.