Prince charles biography marriage

King of the United Kingdom since

"Charles, Prince of Wales" and "Prince Charles" redirect here. For other uses, see Charles, Prince of Wales (disambiguation); Prince Charles (disambiguation); and Charles III (disambiguation).

Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November ) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms since

Charles was born in Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in He was created Prince of Wales in and his investiture was held in He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from to In , he marriedLady Diana Spencer. They had two sons, William and Harry. Charles and Diana divorced in , after they had each engaged in well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash the following year. In , Charles married his long-term partner, Camilla Parker Bowles.

As heir apparent, Charles undertook official duties and engagements on behalf of his mother and represented the United Kingdom on visits abroad. He founded The Prince's Trust in , sponsored the Prince's Charities, and became patron or president of more than other charities and organisations. He advocated for the conservation of historic buildings and the importance of traditional architecture in society. In that vein, he generated the experimental new town of Poundbury. An environmentalist, Charles supported organic farming and action to prevent climate change during his time as the manager of the Duchy of Cornwall estates, earning him awards and recognition as well as criticism; he is also a prominent critic of the ado

King Charles III has been a staid monarch since ascending to the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in But few can forget that his past contains a tumultuous relationship with Princess Diana, his first wife and the mother of his sons, William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry.

Netflix’s The Crown has shown some of the history between Charles and Diana. Season 6 depicts their post-divorce lives, including the car crash that killed Diana. Seeing these moments might make viewers wonder how their relationship really started and ended—and if it was doomed from the start.

Read Their Biographies

The July wedding of then-Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer seemed like a real-life fairy tale to hundreds of millions of people around the world. After years of bachelorhood, the year-old prince had found his princess: a shy, beautiful year-old English aristocrat. The two went on to have the “heir and a spare” the monarchy required, but the royal couple’s happily-ever-after façade soon devolved into an ongoing scandal.

After years of affair revelations, angry recriminations, and public embarrassment, even Queen Elizabeth agreed divorce was the only option. Charles and Diana officially ended their year marriage in The very next year, Diana tragically died at age Her legacy isn’t over yet, though. When Charles dies (or if he chooses to abdicate), his son with Diana—William—will take the throne.

Here are the major events in Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s relationship, from meeting to marriage, having children, facing public scandals, and ultimately calling it quits.

Courtship

November Prince Charles meets Lady Diana Spencer

Diana was a year-old schoolgirl when Charles visited Althorp, Diana’s home, as a guest of her older sister, Lady Sarah Spencer. Despite the gap in their ages—Charles was 12 years older—Diana felt the prince appreciated her, later saying

A young Prince Charles faced one inescapable demand of royal life: he needed a bride. Marriage was the first step in producing heirs to the throne and would provide a partner to sit by his side as queen when he became king. But the prince couldn’t have just anyone fill this role. His potential bride had to be highly born, have a virginal reputation and could not be Catholic (the latter was a legal requirement at the time). In addition, this woman had to be willing to live within the strictures of royal life. Unsurprisingly, the hunt for a bride proved difficult for the prince.

Charles fell for Camilla, but she did not fit the royal requirements to be his bride

Though marriage was a royal necessity, tying the knot wasn’t a priority for Prince Charles when he was in his early 20s. Instead, he followed an approach suggested by his great-uncle and trusted adviser, Lord Louis "Dickie" Mountbatten, who told him, "I believe in a case like yours that a man should sow his wild oats before settling down."

This was year-old Charles' mindset when he met Camilla Shand in the summer of According to some accounts, she introduced herself by saying, "My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-grandfather — so how about it?" (She was talking about Edward VII's affair with her ancestor Alice Keppel.) Whether or not this story is true, the two were soon involved. They grew close in , when Camilla's on-and-off boyfriend, Andrew Parker Bowles, wasn't in England due to his army service.

However, even as they fell for each other, Camilla was never a likely candidate to become Charles' bride. She was from a well-off family, but she wasn't an aristocrat. Mountbatten had also counseled Charles, "I think it is disturbing for women to have experiences if they have to remain on a pedestal after marriage." It was expected that Charles' princess-to-be would have a "pure" reputation,

Died: 31 August , in a car accident in Paris (aged 36)

Married to: Prince Charles (m. –96)

Height: m

Children: Prince William (born ) and Prince Harry (born )

Grandchildren: Prince George (born ); Princess Charlotte (born ); Prince Louis (born ); Archie Mountbatten-Windsor (born )

Parents: John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer & Frances Roche

Siblings: Lady Sarah McCorquodale (–present); Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes (–present); John Spencer, died within 10 hours of his birth on 12 January ; Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (–present)

Educated: Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk; Riddlesworth Hall School near Thetford; West Heath Girls’ School in Sevenoaks, Kent; Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont, Switzerland

When did Diana Spencer meet Prince Charles?

It was in the summer of , at a house party hosted by Diana’s friend Philip de Pass in New Grove, near Petworth, that Prince Charles first saw Diana Spencer as a potential girlfriend. Sitting next to each other on a bale of hay at a post-polo barbecue, an year-old Diana expressed her sympathy for Charles over the loss of his beloved great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, who had been murdered by the IRA a year earlier. “My heart bled for you when I watched the funeral; I thought, ‘It’s wrong, you’re lonely – you should be with somebody to look after you’,” said Diana. This, says Penny Junor, was exactly what Charles needed to hear.

“Mountbatten was a very important figure in Charles’s life and he was in a fragile state at that point,” says Junor. “Diana really touched a nerve in Charles, she said just the right thing to him, at the right moment, and he was moved by her.”

This encounter was not, however, the first time Charles and Diana had met. The pair had been introduced two years earlier, in – Charles thought her “jolly” when he