Robert Fisk, a writer who has incurable bowel cancer, has called on social media users to stop speculating that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's return to the UK means King Charles does not have long to live. Fisk said he woke up at around 10.30pm last night and saw the news that Harry and Meghan are returning to the UK, and then saw on social media that "ghouls" had already moved in and were speculating about the King's health. "To them, and everyone who is thinking of posting similar today, I say stop it, stop it, stop it now before I come down there and fight you," he wrote.
Personal experience with cancer and insensitive comments
Fisk, who has incurable bowel cancer, said he remembers how "p***** off" he was when a district nurse asked how long he had to live. He added that he took it slightly better when a neurology expert effectively said he had not expected Fisk would still be alive, three years after his devastating diagnosis. He also said he was still fired up by the anger he felt after being told that her company would not insure him because no one in his medical team has told him when he is going to die.
Reasons for returning to the UK
Fisk compared Harry and Meghan's return to the UK to a friend of his who moved back from California after living there for more years than he could remember. When he asked why, she said she did not want her children to grow up in a country with so much gun violence, and that her parents are not getting any younger. Fisk said the UK is so much better than the USA, so moving back to be closer to family just makes sense. He noted that he used to live in the States, studied at an American university, worked for an American magazine, and has had more American girlfriends than British ones. If he had married one of them and had children, he said he would have used the "move closer to family" excuse to get them away from a school system where students learn about semi-colons in an English class in their third year of university.
Family and reconciliation
Fisk said that no matter where Prince Harry decides to live, he will only be an armoured car ride away from being able to see his dad, and he may even be able to patch things up with his brother again. He noted that everything takes time and their relationship will not ever be perfect but, as someone who completed his 69th cycle of chemotherapy yesterday, he has seen a lot of families in his cancer hospital struggling to face the reality of their situation. He said it is much easier to support each other when they are sitting with each other talking rather than being thousands of miles apart, and hoped it will be the same for Prince Harry and Prince William.
