King Charles III was released from a London hospital on Monday after undergoing a procedure to treat an enlarged prostate, Buckingham Palace officials said.
Charles was seen waving with Queen Camilla at his side as he exited the London Clinic, a private hospital, hours after his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, left the same hospital following an abdominal operation she had earlier this month.
In a statement on Monday, the palace said Charles, 75, had “rescheduled forthcoming public engagements to allow for a period of private recuperation.”
The king was admitted to the hospital Friday morning for what Buckingham Palace described as “scheduled treatment.”
Benign prostate enlargement is common in men over 50 and can be found in up to 90 percent of men over 70. Treatment can include medication and changes to diet and lifestyle, as well as surgical procedures in more severe cases to remove excess tissue from the prostate gland.
Medical experts said that the most common treatment was a transurethral resection of the prostate, in which a surgeon scrapes out the inside of the prostate gland, giving the urethra more space.
Buckingham Palace did not specify which procedure Charles underwent.
Queen Camilla was with Charles when he was admitted last week, and she was photographed arriving at and leaving the hospital multiple times over the weekend.
January has brought troubling health news for the British royal family. Announcements of Charles and Catherine’s procedures caught supporters and the public off guard, as did news that Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and the ex-wife of the king’s younger brother Prince Andrew, had been diagnosed with melanoma, a serious type of skin cancer.
