Buckingham Palace released a newly published portrait of King Charles III in the Sandringham gardens to mark his 77th birthday. Additional images in Country Life show the King tending restored gardens and planting a maple sapling. On the same day, the King and Queen visited Cyfarthfa Castle in Wales, where he cut a castle-shaped cake, opened the South Wales Metro depot and greeted the public in the rain while gun salutes sounded in London. Recent weeks have been turbulent for Charles, who removed Prince Andrew’s royal titles amid scandal, even as he continues royal duties while undergoing cancer treatment.
King Charles III Marks 77th Birthday with New Sandringham Portrait and Public Engagements
Buckingham Palace released a newly published portrait of King Charles III in the Sandringham gardens to mark his 77th birthday. Additional images in Country Life show the King tending restored gardens and planting a maple sapling. On the same day, the King and Queen visited Cyfarthfa Castle in Wales, where he cut a castle-shaped cake, opened the South Wales Metro depot and greeted the public in the rain while gun salutes sounded in London. Recent weeks have been turbulent for Charles, who removed Prince Andrew’s royal titles amid scandal, even as he continues royal duties while undergoing cancer treatment.
09:41 PM, 11/14/2025Culture
New official portrait released
Buckingham Palace marked King Charles III’s 77th birthday by releasing a newly published photograph of the monarch taken in May by photographer Millie Pilkington. The portrait shows the King in the gardens of the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with the stately home visible behind him.
Additional images from the same session, published in Country Life, show Charles strolling the Sandringham grounds and tending a young maple sapling as part of ongoing garden-restoration work at the estate.
Public engagements in Wales and London
On his birthday the King and Queen Consort, Camilla, attended a reception at Cyfarthfa Castle, about 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of Cardiff. There Charles cut into a giant cake shaped like the castle, opened the South Wales Metro train depot — briefly sitting in the driver’s cab of one of the new tram-trains — and greeted members of the public who had waited in the rain. In London, gun salutes were fired in Green Park and by Tower Bridge.
Two birthdays and a royal tradition
The autumn showers on the day underscored why British monarchs traditionally have two birthdays: a private, actual birthday in the autumn and an official public celebration in summer, marked by the Trooping the Colour parade. The Trooping the Colour usually takes place in summer and features around 1,400 officers and soldiers parading from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade. The custom of a monarch having two birthdays is commonly traced back to King George II in 1748; like Charles, George II was born in November.
Recent challenges and ongoing duties
The past few weeks have been politically and personally challenging for the monarch. At the end of October, the King removed his brother Prince Andrew’s royal titles amid fallout over Andrew’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier in October, Charles visited the Vatican and publicly prayed with Pope Francis — a historic moment reported as the first public prayer between a British monarch and a pope in several centuries.
The King continues to balance official duties with medical treatment after announcing a cancer diagnosis in early 2024. Buckingham Palace has said he remains committed to carrying out engagements as his treatment allows.
Reporting contributions: CNN’s Lauren Said‑Moorhouse and Max Foster.