King Charles is not dead, despite Russian media ‘announcement’ that forced palace to scramble

World News

By Snejana Farberov

Buckingham Palace was forced to deny reports that King Charles III died on Monday after Russian media ran wild with reports based on a dubious-looking “announcement.”

The statement, dated March 18 and featuring the seal of the British monarch’s official London residence, said: “The following announcement is made by royal communications. The King passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.”

The palace issued a statement to the Russian state-run TASS news agency denying the report.

“We are happy to confirm that The King is continuing with official and private business,” it read.

The 75-year-old British king has been undergoing treatment for cancer since late January.

It comes as Charles’ daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, continues to fuel speculations about her health following abdominal surgery on Jan. 17.

Reports that the Princess of Wales’ outing with her husband, Prince William, to a local farm stand over the weekend has done nothing to reassure the public of her well-being — due to the curious lack of photos.

The royal couple’s foray outdoors came a week after 42-year-old Kate sparked a global firestorm when she took the fall for editing a badly Photoshopped family photo showing her with her three children — Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.

The questions about Kate have fueled rampant conspiracy theories about her, and the broader British royal family. 

With the rumor mill working overtime, a host of Russian mainstream news outlets and popular pro-Kremlin Telegram channels rushed to jump on the unverified claim of King Charles’ death.

The Telegram channel Mash, which boasts 2.27 million subscribers, was among the first out of the gate with the fake news, writing in a post: “Britain’s King Charles III has died, Buckingham Palace reports. The son of Elizabeth II ascended the throne less than a year ago – the coronation took place on May 6, 2023. He was 75 years old.”

Sputnik, RIA Novosti and Readkovka all followed suit, citing the bogus palace announcement.

All outlets later issued corrections to their stories.

“Abort, we spoke too soon, the announcement turned out to be a fake,” Mash wrote in an update. “Let us remember that a few months ago he was diagnosed with cancer and performed surgery on his prostate.”

As he continues to receive outpatient treatment for his unspecified form of cancer, the king held a meeting with Baroness Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary general, on March 13, as seen in a photo released by the palace.

 Two days earlier, he released a pre-recorded video address to mark Commonwealth Day.

Charles is expected to attend the annual Trooping of the Colour ceremony celebrating his birthday on June 15 — either on horseback as tradition dictates, or in a carriage.