The King's former royal butler has praised His Majesty's careful approach to planning state visits while managing his health commitments.
Charles and Camilla are set to embark on a significant state visit to Italy and the Holy See in early April, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
The timing of the visit holds particular significance, aligning with the Catholic Church's Pilgrims of Hope jubilee year celebrations.
Speaking to GB News, the King's former royal butler Grant Harrold said: "As I'm sure you can appreciate it's common sense that while he's there, they think, let's just do the two at the same time.
Grant Harrold said every moment of the visit is carefully planned
GB News
"I think also he's getting on a little bit, obviously he's a little bit older. I mean when his mother became Queen and she was undertaking state visits, obviously she was a lot younger.
"I think because of obviously his age and his recent health and everything, they've probably just kind of been sensible about how they plan these kind of things. This is already his ninth visit since becoming king.
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"I just think they're probably just planning it carefully and trying to make the most of his time while he's overseas."
He added: "With all state visits, it can be just for a couple of days or up to about a week. I'm not too sure exactly how long he's there for. But again, these kind of things, when they get planned, they make the most of it.
"So it's not normally he can guarantee he's not there for 24 hours normally, uh, health wise, as far as I'm aware, he's doing really well.
"From the my contacts, if I can say that from my previous time with the King, I have all said that he's doing really well.
Charles and Camilla are set to embark on a significant state visit to Italy and the Holy See in early April
Reuters"He's very positive, obviously, and like so many other people that are kind of battling not just cancer, so many awful diseases.
"The amazing thing is that they have this resilience just to carry on. And that's what he's very much doing is we know he's great. He's a great example."
The Palace has announced that engagements will be held in Rome and Ravenna and the royal couple will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
King Charles was diagnosed with cancer last year
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Despite ongoing cancer treatment, King Charles continues to demonstrate remarkable dedication to his royal duties both at home and abroad.
The monarch's resilience was particularly evident during his recent nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa, which included 36 engagements and was described as the "perfect tonic."
Before the Italian state visit, the King and Queen will host a special black-tie dinner celebrating Italian cuisine at Highgrove this Friday.
