King Charles’s coronation has been the talk of the town for weeks – but just how well do you really know the UK’s first male sovereign for 70 years?
The monarch has a reputation as an eccentric, known for rubbing shoulders with world leaders and celebrities alike and, of course, for having a personal life which makes international news – a lot.
While he was ahead of his time on a whole host of subjects (particularly the current climate crisis), his words – however eloquent – have definitely caused a stir on more than one occasion.
So, can you guess which of these things he actually said and which were said by someone else?
What did Charles really say?
1. On being in love: “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”
2. On fidelity: “A man should sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can before settling down.”
3. On nature: “I happily talk to plants and trees and listen to them. I think it’s absolutely crucial.”
4. On The Crown: “Netflix should not demean it with portrayals which are both injurious and untrue.”
5. On natural disasters: “There’s nothing like a jolly good disaster to get people to start doing something.”
6. Speaking about a royal correspondent: “I can’t bear that man. I mean, he’s so awful, he really is.”
7. On affairs: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
8. On staying out of politics: “I’m not that stupid.”
9. On classism: “What I want to know is; what is actually wrong with an elite, for God’s sake?”
10. On marriage: “I didn’t want a divorce but I had to because of circumstance.”
11. On breaking rules: “Me, a royal rascal? Why is it me who always gets the blame?”
12. On being in the public eye: “You don’t want to see me all the time. You get bored.”
13. On young people: “Young people are the same as they always were. They are just as ignorant.”
14. On skillsets: “I believe passionately that everyone has a particular God-given ability.”
15. On succession: “Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don’t think so.”
Answers:
1. Charles said this to reporters when asked if he and then-fiancee Princess Diana were in love. She said “of course” they were – “whatever ‘in love’ means” was Charles’s reply, in 1981.
2. Lord Mountbatten actually said this in a letter to his nephew, then-Prince Charles, in 1974.
3. Charles reportedly said this in a BBC documentary, in 2010.
4. Sir John Major, former PM, said this when discussing inaccuracies in Netflix’s The Crown, November 2022.
5. Charles was overheard saying this by ITV when attending a reception at a village hall about flooding in Somerset, back in 2014.
6. Charles was overheard saying this about the BBC’s royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, in 2005.
7. Diana, Princess of Wales, said this during her BBC Panorama interview when discussing her marriage to Charles and his affair with Camilla, in 1995.
8. Charles said this during a BBC interview to honour his 70th birthday. He was responding to questions about whether he would meddle with politics as a monarch, in 2018.
9. Charles, as quoted in The Observer, in 1985.
10. Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, quoted in Harper’s Baazar talking about her divorce from Prince Andrew, in 2018.
11. Zara Tindall, Charles’s niece, in October 2001 as reported in the Daily Mail in 2018.
12. Charles said this during an interview with 60 Minutes, when asked why he didn’t go to the US more, in 2005.
13. Prince Philip at the 50th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards schemes, in 2006.
14. Charles, speaking at a private seminar with an audience of Church of England bishops at Lambeth Palace, 2004.
15. Prince Harry, speaking to Newsweek about the royal family, in June 2017.