Prince William Steps Up as King Charles Faces Health Struggles and Growing Palace Tension

Prince William plans to seize the throne from his dying father, King Charles, to save both his marriage and the scandal-shaken monarchy in a palace plot preordained by the late Queen Elizabeth, sources say.

According to insiders, the Prince of Wales, 42, has turned up the heat on the long-simmering coup after the 76-year-old king’s recent hospitalization for side effects from treatment of his publicly undisclosed form of cancer because his concerned wife, Kate, issued a damning divorce ultimatum.

Sources say William is keenly aware of his father’s deteriorating health and heeding 43-year-old Kate’s demand that he wrest control to keep his stepmother, Queen Camilla, from running roughshod over the palace.

“King Charles is much sicker than anyone lets on and simply isn’t up to the job of running his fractious family, the crown’s business interests and fulfilling the daily duties of the monarchy,” a member of the royal inner circle confides. “His cancer is eating him alive.”

Insiders say the ailing monarch, who bravely undertook an official state visit to Italy with Camilla, 77, to keep up the appearance of vigor, is scrambling to stay put after waiting seven decades to ascend to the throne and wants to maintain his wife’s lofty standing for as long as possible.

Charles finally received the crown at great personal cost as it hinged upon the 2022 death of his beloved 96-year-old mother, Elizabeth, who sources say secretly stabbed her heir in the back.

As The National ENQUIRER previously reported, courtiers say Camilla has thrown her weight around to show William that she’s the family boss. Now, sources say Kate has had enough of Charles’ former mistress making a mockery of the monarchy — pushing William to engage in a cutthroat Game of Thrones.

Courtiers suggest the hush-hush tug-of-war is behind William hiring Mischon de Reya, the legal firm that represented his late mom, Princess Diana, during her divorce from two-timing Charles. The switch means the future king has cut ties with his dad’s longtime law team Harbottle & Lewis.

“They are trying to portray themselves in public as if everything is all right and they are close to each other — but behind the scenes there is a lot of bickering,” a second insider tells The ENQUIRER.

“Charles has only been king for a few years and he feels he didn’t get his time in the spotlight,” the source adds. “He’s trying everything in his power to stay at the helm.”

Sources say that before Elizabeth’s death, the no-nonsense queen anointed her grandkid William as her next successor, throwing her eldest son under the bus and setting the stage for a royal showdown.

“She hated how Charles publicly bungled his marriage to Princess Diana while cheating with Camilla for years,” another insider tells The ENQUIRER. “And there are unanswered questions about his possible involvement in Diana’s death in the Paris car wreck in 1997. He’s been dragged into scandals his mother found unforgivable. In her eyes, Charles was unfit to rule.”

Even as the king is in the throes of his health battle — which is believed to be deadly pancreatic cancer — sources say the ruler is refusing to abdicate.

Yet palace expert Tom Quinn — author of Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family — says, “The people I’ve spoken to have said that the succession planning, as they call it, began even before Charles’s diagnosis. I mean, he’s the oldest Prince of Wales to become king in history, so succession planning had begun before Charles came to the throne simply because of the age issue.”

Royal insiders point out William has increasingly taken on more palace duties to let everyone know he’s raring to fulfill his grandmother’s wishes and restore a regal sense of honor to the House of Windsor — and some critics say the change can’t come soon enough.

“The king and William get along but there is friction between them because Charles wants to remain in power and his son is encouraging him to go rest,” the source says. “But Charles is a true workaholic — and he just won’t give it up.”