King Charles III visited St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Sunday morning to attend a traditional Anglican Easter service, his first major public appearance since announcing last week that he was suffering from cancer in two months, AFP reported.

King Charles and Queen Camilla attended the Easter servicePhoto: – / INSTAR Images / Profimedia

Wearing a dark coat, the 75-year-old British monarch appeared in public with a smile, greeted a crowd of onlookers and cracked a few jokes after getting out of a car with his wife, Queen Camilla, in front of a religious building about 40 kilometers west from London, Agerpres notes.

The monarch’s public appearance comes just over a week after Princess Kate, the wife of Prince William, the heir to the throne, announced that she too had been diagnosed with cancer.

Unlike other members of the British royal family, Prince William, Princess Kate and their three children were not present at the chapel in Windsor, preferring to spend Easter away from the media.

In early February, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III was suffering from cancer, discovered during prostate surgery a few days earlier, and that the sovereign had already begun treatment.

Since then, King Charles III has canceled all official public events, but has continued to perform some of his official functions and honor certain gatherings in a limited setting, such as his weekly meetings with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

King Charles is “proud” of Princess Kate’s courage

On March 22, the Princess of Wales announced that she had cancer, without specifying its nature, and began preventive chemotherapy.

Princess Kate was diagnosed with cancer after a major abdominal surgery in mid-January.

According to Buckingham Palace, King Charles has announced that he is “proud” of Princess Kate’s courage after weeks of media and social media speculation caused by her lack of public space since Christmas.

According to the PA news agency, Prince William is due to resume his public duties after the Easter break and after his and Princess Kate’s three children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – return to school.