AceShowbiz - King Charles' health reportedly keeps declining to the point that Buckingham Palace staff continue to regularly update plans for his funeral. According to a new report, the situation for the British monarch is "not good."

"Speaking to friends of the king in recent weeks about his health, the most common response is … It's not good. Of course he is determined to beat it and they are throwing everything at it," Tom Sykes of the Daily Beast reported on Thursday, April 25. "Everyone is staying optimistic, but he is really very unwell. More than they are letting on."

It was also said that the king's aides are regularly reviewing copies of a several-hundred-page document for the royal funeral plans. Dubbed "Operation Menai Bridge," the plans allegedly started the day after Queen Elizabeth was buried and use the longest-serving queen's funeral as a field guide.

A former staffer told the news outlet, "The plans have been dusted off and are actively being kept up to date. It's no more than what you would expect given the king has been diagnosed with cancer. But the circulation of them has certainly focused minds."

Military officials additionally confirmed claims that Operation Menai Bridge is being regularly updated. However, they emphasized that it was a standard procedure, adding that "it would be absurd to read anything into" that fact.

Meanwhile, a senior official involved in the planning of royal funerals said, "Of course they are looking at every aspect of Menai Bridge. The queen's funeral went like clockwork and set a high bar. It's not an emotional thing, it's a job, one taken very seriously, and understandably no one plans to get caught out."

Royal scribe Tina Brown, on the other hand, suggested that Charles' deteriorating health has put Prince William and Kate Middleton "in frightening proximity to ascending the throne just when they had hoped for a span of years to parent their children out of the public eye." Tina added, "The prospect of it, I am told, is causing them intense anxiety."

Following a surgery for a benign prostate enlargement, King Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis in February. The palace never revealed what cancer he has been diagnosed with, though it admitted that it wasn't prostate cancer.