Royal news live: King Charles sends message to Australia as monarch arrives for first visit since cancer diagnosis

Sarah Ferguson has become the first member of the British royal family to join TikTok.

The Duchess of York, 65, made her debut on the platform with a poignant video reflecting on her breast cancer diagnosis.

Ferguson how she felt “total abject fear” when she received the medical news and recalled not being able to speak as she drove between hospitals.

“I just shut down, I went back into [a] little girl. It was easier not to ask for support and just to deal with it because that’s what I’m used to, that’s what I was taught,” she admitted.

King Charles and Queen Camilla’s arrival in Australia has been marked with a spectacular light show on the Sydney Opera House.

It was poignantly lit up for four minutes with pictures from previous royal tours.

The couple are set to spend six days in the country on their first visit as king and queen.

A woman who has been dubbed Australia’s “biggest royal fan” has said that she cannot wait for King Charles’s historic visit.

Jan Hugo, the proud owner of the country’s largest collection of royal memorabilia, said that she loves “everything” about the royal family.

“I think we might try and coordinate a couple of things and see where we might be able to see him,” Ms Hugo told the TODAY programme. “But you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla have officially arrived in Australia for their historic tour – the monarch’s first as king.

The couple landed in Sydney on a Royal Australian Air Force plane, where they were greeted by a warm welcome as they stepped off their plane and shook the hands of officials.

The queen consort was also gifted a bouquet of flowers by a young boy.

Watch live as King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in Australia on Friday, 18 October, for their first official visit since the coronation.

His Majesty is embarking on his 16th official visit and 17th overall to the country, which is his first trip there as monarch and Queen Camilla’s first in her role as consort.

The royal couple last travelled around the globe to the Commonwealth realm in 2018.

Charles and Camilla will embark on a six-day trip to Canberra and Sydney as part of a historic tour of the South Pacific.

They will later travel to Samoa for a three-day state visit and speak with world leaders in a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which Charles will formally open.

Prince William has praised the work of the Duchy College after a visit to Cornwall, where the heir to the throne met its students on campus.

A statement on the official Kensington Palace Twitter/X account read: “The @DuchyCollege does a brilliant job providing opportunities for young people in rural areas to foster a successful career.

“A great morning in Cornwall spent chatting about the future of farming, getting hands-on with CSI-focused course tasks and meeting students on campus.”

The post was accompanied by footage of William meeting with students to learn more about their studies and ambitions. The college has two campuses in Rosewarne and Stoke Climsland, Cornwall.

King Charles and Queen Camilla have issued an excited joint statement ahead of their historic tour of Australia.

It read: “Ahead of our first visit to Australia as King and Queen, we are really looking forward to returning to this beautiful country to celebrate the extraordinarily rich cultures and communities that make it so special.

“See you there! – Charles R & Camilla R.”

The statement was accompanied by archive footage from previous royal tours of the country.

King Charles is set to begin his eight-day tour of Australia and Samoa today.

The monarch’s first visit to Australia since taking the throne has been compared to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s historic 1954 tour of the country.

Dr George Gross, royal historian and visiting research fellow at King’s College London, said: “This is a tour of significant firsts. Although King Charles III has travelled to Australia many times, this will be his first visit there as sovereign and the first tour to the country by a reigning monarch since 2011.

“It will also be the King’s first official overseas tour since his cancer diagnosis, his first to a Commonwealth realm and, while visiting Samoa, he will lead the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of his reign.

“It is notable too that he is visiting Australia in the year after his coronation, as this echoes the 1954 tour by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II following her coronation in 1953.”

The visit will be Charles’s 17th visit to Australia in his lifetime.

King Charles is set to be met with anti-monarchy protests when he arrives in Australia with Queen Camilla on Friday.

Alongside protests from people within Australia, Graham Smith, the chief executive officer of the UK-based anti-monarchy group Republic, said he was travelling down under “to challenge the royal PR machine”.

Mr Smith said: “I’m in Australia to talk about why the UK should ditch the monarchy and to challenge the royal PR machine.

“I’m not here to tell Australia to become a republic, but to talk to Australians and the British press about the growing republican movement in the UK and the huge failings of the British monarchy.

“The message is simple: Charles does not speak for us, he does not represent us, he should go home.”

Can the royal family and King Charles adapt to the modern age and stay relevant? Will Harry be able to rejoin The Firm? And what will the next generation of royalty be like?

These and more questions from our audience were answered in The Independent’s premium event on the future of the royal family.

Hosted by assistant editor Victoria Harper, the panel features bestselling authors Anna Pasternak and Tessa Dunlop, plus royal historian Jonathan Spangler.

Watch the full event here. If you enjoy our virtual events, please consider supporting The Independent with a donation or by subscribing to Independent Premium.