THE PRINCE OF WALES

HOW WILLIAM IS STEPPING UP TO MEET THE CHALLENGE AFTER THE KING'S CANCER DIAGNOSIS

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Nine months after he swore to be his father's liege man of life and limb, the Prince of Wales's solemn coronation promise has never been more critical.

As the King, 75, takes a step back from public-facing duties to undergo treatment for cancer, he will be relying on his elder son and heir to represent him and the monarchy when required, just as Charles did for his mother, Queen Elizabeth II - and as she herself did when her own father, King George VI, was stricken with cancer at a young age.

So as Prince William, 41, spends time with his wife, Princess Kate, 42 - who is recovering from major abdominal surgery - and their three children during their school break, he will have much on his mind.

"I think William has certainly realized this, and the weight of the world is on his shoulders," royal author Robert Jobson tells Hello! “He’s going to be the King at some stage.

“He must be feeling rather like Her late Majesty when she was 25, suddenly being catapulted into this job, which becomes all-consuming.”

While the King is continuing to carry out his constitutional duties, the Prince of Wales may serve as his substitute for in-person engagements, which the monarch has been advised to postpone during his treatment for an unspecified form of cancer discovered while receiving medical attention for an enlarged prostate.

Father and son are in “constant contact,” a palace source tells Hello!, with the entire Wales family – William, Kate, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5 – travelling to Sandringham during the children’s recent half-term vacation.