His old friend was relieved. “It was nice to see him … He’s on form,” British gardener and TV personality Alan Titchmarsh told reporters of King Charles on April 1, after receiving a commendation at Windsor Castle. The ceremony took place just days after the king, who has been battling cancer for more than a year, was hospitalized on March 27 due to temporary side effects from treatment, which palace sources described to multiple outlets as a “minor bump in the road.” Alan added that he’s always been “in awe of his boundless energy. His resilience before he had the problem was remarkable, and his resilience now is astonishing.”

It’s in Charles’ DNA. “Like his late mother, who used to say, ‘If I stop, I drop,’ work keeps him going,” royal expert Ingrid Seward exclusively tells In Touch of the strong ethic he inherited from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who famously appointed a new prime minister two days before her 2022 death. “Charles couldn’t function without it.”

And despite his family’s growing fears for his health and constant outside pressure to dial back his schedule or even abdicate the throne, a palace insider adds, the 76-year-old monarch “is refusing to slow down.”

King Charles’ Work Ethic Keeps the Monarch Going Amid His Cancer Battle

The king is famously known as a workaholic. “He has been like this for all his adult life,” Seward tells In Touch, adding that keeping busy “gives a complete structure to his day.” And night, most of the time. Sophie Winkleman, who is married to Charles’ second cousin Lord Frederick Windsor, told Tatler in 2023 that “he works all day long, has a quick supper and then disappears until about 4 a.m. to write letters.” Charles’ son Prince Harry confirmed that in his memoir, Spare. “Countless times, late at night, Willy and I would find him at his desk amid mountains of bulging blue post bags — his correspondence,” Harry wrote. “More than once we discovered him, face on the desk, fast asleep.” And as William noted in a 2017 BBC documentary, “he has amazing personal discipline.” Even his 2024 cancer diagnosis hasn’t deterred him.

Last June, Queen Camilla, 77, told author Lee Child that her husband was “doing fine except he won’t do what he’s told,” The Sun reported. But if he listens to anyone, it would be his beloved wife, says Seward. “She is always trying to get him to slow down, without much success,” the author of My Mother and I tells In Touch. “He is king so he can do what he wants, and the only person who can persuade him to slow down would be her. Not his doctors!”

Even when the pair celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9, they’ll be on duty. “Charles and Camilla are on a state visit to Italy,” Seward, who is the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, notes. The only way he might take a break, she adds, “is if he was unable to get out of bed and was so physically exhausted he couldn’t function.” That’s exactly what his family “is worried” could happen, says the insider. Along with Camilla, Princess Kate, 43, and William, 42, “have also expressed concern that he is pushing himself too hard,” says the insider. “William has offered to step up more, but the last thing he wants to convey is an eagerness to take the throne. It’s a delicate situation.”

William knows his turn will come eventually, royal expert Robert Hardman has said. “He has zero interest in displacing his father,” the author wrote in The Making of a King, noting that Charles waited 73 years to get the job he was born to do. “Not only does the king feel that he has earned his position after the longest apprenticeship in history,” Hardman wrote, “he also has no intention of imposing such a burden on his son any earlier than the Almighty ordains.”

King Charles Is Preparing the Future Including Prince William’s Next Steps

That doesn’t mean he isn’t preparing for the inevitable. Arrangements have already been made for Charles’ funeral, and there are specific protocols in place for William’s next steps, which will likely be very similar to what happened following the queen’s death.

In his book, Hardman described how within hours of her passing, Charles and William “sat down to watch what amounted to a training video prepared by his private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, for this very moment.” And on September 10, 2022, Charles made the historic decision to allow the Accession Council — in which he was officially proclaimed Elizabeth’s successor — to be broadcast for the first time ever.

Historian Vernon Bogdanor told the BBC it was “a sign of the times that the monarchy has to adapt to a more open and less deferential society.” William is expected to do the same — and has even more plans that will change the royal family forever, says the insider. The prince has already begun hinting at how he plans to rule. “I’m trying to do it differently, and I’m trying to do it for my generation,” he told the BBC last November. “I’m doing it with maybe a smaller R in the royal, if you like.” But he won’t be doing anything just yet. “Of course Charles wants the transition to his son to go smoothly,” says the insider, “but the king is trying to make the most of the time he has left — he’s not giving up the throne yet!”