A timeline of recent British royal events

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III was hospitalized briefly for side effects from his cancer treatment and canceled public appointments on Friday, a small setback in his more than yearlong battle with an undisclosed type of the disease.

The 76-year-old king smiled and waved to supporters from the backseat of a chauffeur-driven Audi as he left his residence at Clarence House the day after he was briefly kept at a private hospital in London for observation.

The royal family has weathered a difficult period since January 2024 when both Charles and his daughter-in-law, Kate, the Princess of Wales, were hospitalized for different medical procedures and doctors discovered they both had cancer. While Kate announced in September that she had completed chemotherapy, the king continues to receive treatment.

Charles is due to resume official duties soon and plans a state visit to Italy next month.

Here’s a timeline of recent events in the royal family:

Charles becomes king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles makes first foreign visit as monarch to Germany.

The new monarch is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Charles travels to France for a state visit, making a stop at the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral.

Charles makes a state visit to Kenya, expressing sorrow and regret for past violence committed against Kenyans as they sought independence.

Charles attends a Christmas service at Sandringham, the royal estate in eastern England, alongside Prince William, Kate, their children and other members of the royal family. It will be Kate’s last public appearance for six months.

Kate, 42, is admitted to the London Clinic and undergoes abdominal surgery. The news isn’t announced until the next day.

Kensington Palace reveals that Kate is recovering from a planned operation. Officials say her condition isn’t cancer-related, but didn't specify what surgery it was, only saying it was successful. They say she will remain in the private hospital for 10-14 days and be away from public view until after Easter. Buckingham Palace announces on the same day that Charles will be treated for a benign enlarged prostate.

Charles is admitted to a London hospital for a three-day stay for his prostate treatment.

Kate and Charles are both discharged from the London Clinic. Charles is photographed leaving the hospital with Camilla and waving at well-wishers. Kate isn't pictured leaving the hospital.

Buckingham Palace announces that Charles has cancer and will receive treatment. Officials don't say what form of cancer the king has.

Prince Harry arrives in the U.K. from California to visit his father. He departs the next day.

Charles cheerfully waves to well-wishers after leaving church services near Sandringham, his first public outing since his cancer diagnosis.

Kensington Palace releases a photo of Kate surrounded by her children to mark Mother’s Day in Britain. The photo, the first official one since she underwent surgery, was retracted hours later by The Associated Press and other news agencies over concerns it had been digitally manipulated.

Amid speculation about her health sparked by the edited family photo, Kate issues an apology on social media for the “confusion” caused. She says that she “occasionally experiments with editing” like many amateur photographers.

The Sun newspaper publishes a video reportedly showing a smiling and relaxed Kate shopping with William at a farm shop near their Windsor home.

In a video address, Kate announces that she's undergoing treatment for cancer, including chemotherapy. She says she is getting stronger every day, but needs to focus on her recovery.

Buckingham Palace announces that Charles will return to public-facing duties.

Charles attends commemorations in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Kate issues an update on her health, saying that she has “good days and bad days” and is “blown away” by the public’s support. She says that she will attend ceremonies the next day to mark the monarch’s official birthday.

Kate attends the king's official birthday ceremonies, also known as Trooping the Color, along with William, their three children and other members of the royal family. Crowds cheer when the royals emerge onto a Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a military flyby at the end of the event.

Kate presents tennis player Carlos Alcaraz with his trophy at Wimbledon in her second public appearance since announcing her diagnosis.

Kate releases a video message, saying she has finished chemotherapy and reflecting on her "complex, scary and unpredictable" cancer journey. She says she will undertake "a few more public engagements" in the coming months as she recovers.

Charles and Queen Camilla complete a physically taxing trip to Australia and Samoa.

Charles was briefly hospitalized for observation after experiencing “temporary side effects’’ related to a scheduled cancer treatment. He waves to well-wishers in central London the following day. Charles cancels planned engagements on the advice of his doctors.

FILE - Britain's King Charles III holds up flowers he was given as he leaves after a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, gestures during a reception with the Irish Guards, at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Eddie Mulholland/Pool photo via AP)

FILE - Britain's King Charles III waves as he arrives for a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, poses for a photo with the Irish Guards, at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Eddie Mulholland/Pool photo via AP)

FILE - Britain's King Charles III smiles during his visit to the Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre in Forsinard, Highland, Scotland, July 31, 2024. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Britain's Kate, the Princess of Wales, poses for a photo with members of the Irish Guards at a special St Patrick's Day parade and celebration at Wellington Barracks in London, Monday, March 17, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Flowers are seen in front of Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025, after the Palace said King Charles III was hospitalized for observation on Thursday, experiencing "temporary side effects,'' related to a scheduled cancer treatment. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's King Charles III is driven by car from Clarence House, his London home, along The Mall towards Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

The Royal Standard flag is pictured flying from the Roof of Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025, after the Palace said King Charles III was hospitalized for observation on Thursday, experiencing "temporary side effects,'' related to a scheduled cancer treatment. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday faced federal lawmakers for the first time since September as he sought to defend a more than 12% proposed cut to his department's budget and dodge arrows from angry Democrats along the way.

In his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, kicking off an expected sprint of seven budget hearings he'll attend across congressional committees and subcommittees over the next week, Kennedy emphasized the administration's work to reform dietary guidelines and crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.

Republicans on the committee praised Kennedy as a “breath of fresh air” and asked him to promote his department's recent actions. Democrats, who have been furious over Kennedy's sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, largely had a different agenda.

They needled Kennedy on what they viewed as the Trump administration’s hypocrisy on fraud, demanded to know why he was cutting budgets for various programs and slammed his efforts to pull back vaccine recommendations and messaging, which they said have caused unnecessary deaths.

Kennedy fired back, often raising his voice as he accused the Democrats of misrepresenting his work and past statements.

Here are three standout moments from Thursday's hearing:

One heated exchange early in the hearing came between Kennedy and Rep. Linda Sanchez. The California Democrat decried recent measles outbreaks across the U.S. and asked Kennedy to answer for the fact that under his leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled back public health messaging supporting vaccination.

“As a mother, this horrifies me,” Sanchez said. “Did President Trump approve your decision to end CDC’s pro-vaccine public messaging campaign?”

Kennedy repeatedly refused to answer, saying first he wanted to respond to the “misstatements that you've made” and later praising the Trump administration's record on preventing measles, although protections against the disease have eroded in some parts of the country as vaccination rates have dropped.

“That's not answering my question,” Sanchez said as the two talked over each other.

But Sanchez also got Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics, to acknowledge that a 6-year-old who died of measles last year in West Texas could have potentially been saved with vaccination.

“Do you agree with the majority of doctors that the measles vaccine could have saved that child’s life in Texas?” she asked.

“It's possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.

A fight erupted between Kennedy and Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Alabama, when Kennedy vehemently denied making remarks he'd said in 2024.

The comments dated back to when Kennedy was a presidential candidate. On the “High Level Conversations” podcast in 2024, he said, “Psychiatric drugs — which every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented to live in a community where there'll be no cellphones, no screens, you'll actually have to talk to people."

“Have you ever re-parented, or parented, I should say, a Black child?” Sewell asked, as her staff held up a poster featuring an abbreviated version of the quote.

“I don't even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said. “I'm not going to answer something I didn't say.”

“You're making stuff up,” he later claimed.

A recording of the podcast shows he made the comments during a conversation about free rehabilitation facilities he was proposing opening at the time in rural areas around the country.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy before joining the administration was referring to spaces where young people facing alienation, mental health challenges and despair could get re-parented, which she said was a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”

Kennedy spent most of his life as a Democrat, the scion of one of the nation's most famous political families. Both Republicans and Democrats during the hearing began their remarks by expressing their admiration of Kennedy's relatives, among them former President John F. Kennedy.

But again and again throughout Thursday's hearing, the fraying of bonds between Kennedy and his former party was on full display as spiteful comments were passed back and forth.

The health secretary grew defensive and visibly agitated. He repeatedly criticized Democratic lawmakers for not giving him a word in edgewise.

“They've all shut me up,” Kennedy said at one point. “They give a little speech that they can go and market, you know, for fundraising, and they don't allow me to answer the question.”

On a few rare occasions, the exchanges were civil. One representative, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, used humor to make that happen.

“I promise to give you easy, comfortable questions if you don't yell at me and hurt my feelings,” she told Kennedy. He promised he wouldn't.

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An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Kennedy's remarks about Black children were made last year. He made the remarks in 2024.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, prepares to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee about his agency's goals and budget, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)