Phil Collins Makes Rare Appearance at Buckingham Palace

Phil Collins stepped back into the spotlight this month, making one of his most significant public appearances in years when he attended The King’s Trust 50th anniversary celebration at Buckingham Palace. And for fans who’ve been quietly worrying about the Genesis legend, the photos were a welcome sight.

Collins’ ex-wife Jill Collins posted the moment on Instagram on May 15, sharing a photo from the Royal Tea Tent that showed Phil — dressed in a sharp black suit and red tie, leaning on forearm crutches — standing alongside Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster. Jill called it a “truly memorable afternoon.”

“Despite the downpours of torrential rain, which did not seem to dampen the festivities, @officialphilcollins and I were very proud and honored to be there and have a few private moments with King Charles, who seemed genuinely pleased to see Phil,” she wrote. She also noted that Phil “was the very first ambassador 40 years ago and a trustee even before that” — a connection to the charity that stretches back decades.

The comments on her post lit up almost immediately. “Fantastic to see Phil looking so good,” one fan wrote. “This post has made my day,” said another. “It’s especially good to see Phil out and about.” Someone else simply wrote: “Ohhhh, Phillllll 😍👏.”

The couple — who were married from 1984 to 1996 and share a daughter, actress Lily Collins — also announced they’ll host an auction from their personal archives this fall in London to benefit the King’s charity.

A Health Battle Years in the Making

Collins has been largely absent from public life since retiring from music in March 2022, and the reasons are serious. The cascade of health problems started years earlier — his son Nicholas has spoken about a major neck surgery in 2015, stemming from decades of drumming and bad posture. Then came a 2007 spinal injury that damaged vertebrae in his upper neck and caused nerve damage so severe it left him unable to hold drumsticks. He also developed drop foot, a condition that makes lifting the front of the foot nearly impossible.

“I can barely hold a stick with this hand,” Collins told BBC Breakfast back in September 2021, about six months before he officially stepped away. “I don’t know if I want to go out on the road anymore.”

In his documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First, which premiered in December 2024, he reflected on what that loss has meant. “I’ve spent all my life playing drums,” he said. “To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock. If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks then I’ll have a crack at it. But I just feel like I’ve used up my air miles.”

By early 2025, he told Mojo magazine the situation had only gotten harder. “I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens. But I’m not hungry for it anymore. The thing is, I’ve been sick — I mean very sick.”

Then in January, in a candid conversation with Zoe Ball for BBC’s Eras podcast, Collins laid out just how much his body has been through. Five knee surgeries. Kidney complications after years of heavy drinking caught up with him. A COVID-19 diagnosis — contracted while he was already in hospital — that sent his kidneys into further distress. “I had everything that could go wrong with me, did go wrong with me,” he said. “I got COVID in hospital, my kidneys started to back up. Everything seemed to sort of converge at the same time.”

He now has a 24-hour live-in nurse to manage his medication. “I can walk, albeit with assistance — crutches or whatever,” he told the BBC, per Variety. And despite all of it, he added: “It’s just been a difficult, interesting, frustrating last few years. But it’s all right now.”

Seeing him at Buckingham Palace — dressed up, surrounded by friends, getting a private moment with King Charles — feels like exactly the kind of “all right” worth holding onto.