Charles Philip Arthur George, formerly known as Prince Charles and now known as King Charles III ascended to the British throne when his mother Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. She ruled for 70 years and 214 days and was 96 years old when she died, making her the longest reigning monarch of Britain—and Charles the longest monarch-in-waiting. He was 73 by the time he became king. Of course, he didn’t spend his whole life just sitting around twiddling his thumbs and waiting to become king. He lived his life and that life has not been controversy-free.
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Even though he began his reign in September 2022, his coronation date is May 6, 2023. Why the long wait? Well, a coronation is supposed to be a happy occasion. Waiting a few months gives time to mourn the death of the previous monarch. Makes sense. It also gives the public time to reminisce about the new monarch’s past controversies. Here are some of the biggest controversies Charles has faced so far.
He was caught drinking when he was only 14.
He went to a pub with classmates when he was 14 and ordered a cherry brandy. Why a cherry brandy? "I said the first drink that came into my head because I'd drunk it before, when it was cold, out shooting," then-Prince Charles told Vanity Fair. The whole thing was witnessed by a tabloid reporter who happened to be at the same pub. His bodyguard at the time was fired over the incident.
He actually dated Diana’s sister before dating Diana.
In 1977, Diana’s older sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Charles dated for nine months, but she just wasn’t that into him. Lady Sarah told journalists: "Our relationship is totally platonic. I think of him as the big brother I never had. I wouldn't marry a man I didn't love, whether it was a dustman or the King of England."
Have you seen the engagement interview?
In 1981, when they were known as Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, the couple announced their engagement and sat down for an official interview. Years later, Diana shared in, Diana: In Her Own Words:
"We had this ghastly interview the day we announced our engagement," she wrote. "And this ridiculous [reporter] said, 'Are you in love?' I thought, what a thick question. So I said, 'Yes, of course, we are,' and Charles turned round and said, 'Whatever love means.' And that threw me completely. I thought, what a strange answer. It traumatized me."
Then there was the cringe-worthy Tampongate.
Charles and Diana married on July 29, 1981, and were officially divorced August 28, 1996. In 1993, the British press published a transcript of a phone conversation between then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. The conversation took place on December 17, 1989 when both Charles and Camilla were married to other people and got dubbed Tampongate because…eww…get ready to cringe.
The whole call was flirty, but it got weird.
This is the part of the transcript that mentions the tampon:
CHARLES: Oh, God. I'll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier!
CAMILLA (laughing): What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? (Both laugh). Oh, you're going to come back as a pair of knickers.
CHARLES: Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck! (Laughs)
CAMILLA: You are a complete idiot! (Laughs) Oh, what a wonderful idea.
Of course, this was all very scandalous at the time and maybe even now.
He always seemed so unkind to Diana.
Not only was he clearly cheating on her, she was just plain neglectful and absent. In 1992, Diana was photographed all by herself outside of the Taj Mahal in India. She looks sad and lonely. The thing is that Charles was supposed to meet her there so they could be photographed together, but he didn’t show up. This made Charles look like a cad, especially since the Taj Mahal is essentially built as a tribute to a great love.
Charles was initially disappointed when Harry was born.
"Charles and I were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest we've ever, ever been and ever will be," Diana said in an interview for her biography. "Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain."
Then there was that time he left an injured William to go to the opera.
In 1991, Prince William was hospitalized after getting hit in the head by a golf club while he was at boarding school. He ended up needing surgery. Naturally, Diana stayed by his side. Charles, on the other hand, left both of them to resume his royal duties and go to the opera. That did not go over well with the public.
He claimed that he tried to be faithful to Diana in the beginning.
In a 1994 documentary, he was asked if he had tried to be faithful to Diana while they were married. He responded, that “Yes, absolutely.” When pressed on whether he had been faithful he said, “Yes.” Then after a pause he said, “Until it became irretrievably broken down.” Well, isn’t that convenient?
A year after Diana died, Charles and Camilla went public.
Diana died in 1997 and in 1998, Charles and Camilla went public as a couple. Diana was, and continues to be, beloved, while Camilla has always been cast as the villain that destroyed Charles and Diana’s marriage. The press had certainly never been sympathetic to Camilla, and the public followed that lead.
In 2005, Charles and Camilla married.
So much trouble could have been avoided if these two had just married each other from the beginning. They met in the 1970s and some say it was love at first sight. It took them 35 years to get married.
He was made fun of for talking to plants.
“I happily talk to the plants and trees, and listen to them. I think it’s absolutely crucial,” it was reported that he once said. Of course, he was ridiculed for it, but who doesn’t talk to their plants? Is talking to plants really all that controversial?
In 2015, the black spider memos exposed his lobbying efforts.
The black spider memos, supposedly called that because of Charles’ scrawly handwriting, are a set of 27 memos sent in 2004 and 2005 to the British prime minister at the time, as well as other government officials, urging them to push forward policy changes that aligned with Charles' views and interests.
"They show he is putting forward a whole variety of views—including many bad science views and others that should have no more weight than the man down the pub," Paul Flynn, a member of Parliament, told The Guardian. "We can see his views were given a seriousness and priority they did not deserve."
He has been accused of being anti-science.
In 2019, Charles became the patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy, which to be honest doesn’t sound all that bad to me, but the Good Thinking Society—a nonprofit that promotes scientific skepticism—was none too pleased. It released a statement claiming that “Prince Charles has used his royal platform to advocate for an anti-science position.”
In 2021, the cash-for-honors scandal broke.
The Prince's Foundation, Charles’ charity, came under investigation because the chairman of the foundation, Michael Fawcett, was accused of offering UK citizenship and knighthood to a Saudi billionaire in exchange for a donation to the foundation. Charles, through a spokesperson, has denied knowing anything about the offer.
He’s been accused of being racist.
Christopher Andersen, author of Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan, alleged that after the morning that the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was announced, Charles asked Camilla, "What do you suppose their children's complexion might be?" But according to the author, the comment was “benign” and was later “weaponized” by palace insiders.
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He’s not politically neutral.
The royal family is supposed to be neutral and not share their political alliances, which is part of the reason the black spider memos were so controversial. Charles is considered to be “more overtly political” than his mother Queen Elizabeth was, and “many are disturbed by that.”
