Buckingham Palace has issued a statement following widespread rumors claiming that King Charles III had died.

Speculation about the monarch’s health began circulating online on Sunday, October 6, with search terms such as “king dead,” “is King Charles dead,” and “is King Charles still alive” trending across Google and TikTok. According to data reports, there were more than 20,000 searches for the King’s name in the past 24 hours, sparking concern among royal watchers.

The rumors appeared just months after the 76-year-old sovereign revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer. The exact type of cancer has not been disclosed, but Buckingham Palace confirmed earlier this year that the King has been receiving treatment and remains under expert medical care.

In a statement to IGV, a palace spokesperson dismissed the speculation, saying: “We would not comment on rumour or speculation of this sort.”

The King last spoke publicly about his health during the opening of the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, where he acknowledged that “half the problem is detecting it in time,” but reassured well-wishers that he was “not too bad” and added, “There’s always hope down the road.”

The unfounded reports also coincided with flags being flown at half-mast across parts of the UK on Friday, October 3 — a move that some social media users wrongly interpreted as a sign of royal mourning.

King Charles’ calendar of public engagements currently shows no official events scheduled for the coming weeks. However, a recent press release confirmed that His Majesty and Queen Camilla will undertake a state visit to the Holy See later this month.

The statement read: “The King and Queen will join His Holiness Pope Leo XIV in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year.”

Both Buckingham Palace and royal correspondents have urged the public to disregard the false reports circulating online.