King overtakes Princess Anne as hardest-working member of Royal family
The ‘indefatigable’ Charles took on the most engagements in 2025, even as he underwent weekly cancer treatment.
By Victoria Ward
January 4, 2026 — 7.30pm
The King has overtaken his younger sister to be named the hardest-working member of the Royal family in 2025, despite undergoing weekly cancer treatment.
He conducted more engagements last year than the industrious Princess Royal, including traversing the country, hosting three high-profile state visits and travelling to Italy, Canada and Poland.
King Charles was able to continue royal engagements while receiving treatment.Credit: AP
An analysis of engagements recorded in the Court Circular found that between them, the 10 working royals managed 23 per cent more jobs in 2025 than in 2024, a year in which both the King and the Princess of Wales were diagnosed with cancer.
Analyst Patricia Treble described the King as “indefatigable” and said that as the year progressed, “it felt like the House of Windsor was making up for lost time”.
Her research found that the King had conducted 533 engagements in 2025, while his sister conducted 478, although she worked on more days overall – 186.
Following closely behind were the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (Prince Edward and wife Sophie), who had 313 and 235 engagements respectively.
Next came Queen Camilla, who kept busy with 228 engagements, and the Duke of Gloucester (Prince Richard, cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II), who ploughed on with little fanfare, conducting 212 engagements.
The Duke, who at 81 is the second-oldest working member of the royal family, outpaced William, Prince of Wales, who carried out 202 engagements in 2025, up from 139 the previous year.
Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester, 79, held 113, while the Duke of Kent (another Prince Edward, a cousin of the late queen), 90, conducted 77 engagements in the year he lost his wife, the Duchess of Kent, who died at 92 in September.
Catherine, the Princess of Wales, who revealed at the beginning of the year that she was in remission from cancer, conducted 68 public engagements.
‘You put on a brave face’
In July, she revealed that the road to recovery was proving harder than she had expected, saying during a visit to Colchester Hospital in Essex: “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment.
“Treatment’s done, then it’s like, ‘I can crack on, get back to normal’, but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult.
