King Charles III and Queen Camilla have extended their warm season greeting on Instagram amid the monarch’s health struggles.

In the Christmas card shared on Instagram, King Charles III and Queen Camilla are smiling for the camera. The message on the card read, “Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and New Year.” The photo was clicked in April. 

The note shared along with the card read, “Christmas is coming…Their Majesties are pleased to share this year’s Christmas card, taken by Millie Pilkington in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace in April 2024.”

This Christmas wish comes nearly nine months after Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III had been diagnosed with cancer during a “routine hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement.” Following the announcement, the monarch briefly stepped back from public engagements to undergo treatment. At the time, Buckingham Palace stated that the King remained optimistic about his treatment and was eager to return to his royal duties as soon as he was able to do so.

By April 2024, King Charles was able to resume his royal commitments, beginning with a visit to a cancer treatment centre to meet with patients and medical staff. In June 2024, the King and Queen hosted a State Visit for the Emperor and Empress of Japan, marking an important diplomatic event.

Buckingham Palace also expressed gratitude in a statement, saying, “Their Majesties remain deeply grateful for the many kindnesses and good wishes they have received from around the world throughout the joys and challenges of the past year.”

Charles’ health battle was also part of a difficult year for the royal family, which included Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis. Following her abdominal surgery in January 2024, the Princess of Wales, 42, revealed her diagnosis in March. Kate took time away from public events for treatment but gradually resumed her duties, making a public appearance at the Trooping the Colour parade in June 2024. By September, she announced that her chemotherapy was complete and she had finished her treatment.

Charles and Camilla took the monarchy in May 2023 after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September 2022.

London:

Barbie may not have won at the Oscars, but she made a new friend Tuesday: Queen Camilla, who was immortalised as one of the iconic dolls.

“You’ve taken about 50 years off (me)… we should all have a Barbie,” the queen joked as she was presented with the doll modelled closely on her own image.

Camilla, 76, whose cancer-stricken husband King Charles III has currently stepped back from royal duties, was presented with the gift in recognition of her work as president of the Women of the World (WOW) Foundation.

She was joined by Mathilde, Queen of Belgium and actor Helen Mirren, the narrator of last year’s blockbuster “Barbie” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

The film, released last year, has been a box office success but missed out on all but one of the nine Oscars it was nominated for at last week’s Academy Awards.

Mirren, 78, won her own best actress Oscar in 2007 for “The Queen” in which she played the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Last week she also received her own Barbie doll, dressed just like her and complete with a tiny Oscar statuette.

Camilla’s doll was dressed in a scaled down version of the her outfit — a blue Fiona Clare dress, black cape by Amanda Wakeley and Eliot Zed black boots.

It was presented to her on board the WOW Girls Festival Bus which has toured the country promoting gender equality and made a final stop at the royal family’s Buckingham Palace residence in central London.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)