After Prince Philip passed away, Buckingham Palace stressed the fact that they didn’t want mourners lingering outside of makeshift memorials. It’s about the pandemic, and not wanting large groups gathering in close proximity. People have been leaving flowers outside of Buckingham Palace and other royal homes, and those tributes were moved to Marlborough House. Today, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall went to Marlborough House to look at the tributes to Philip. Charles looked quite emotional.
Prince Charles and Camilla appeared emotional today as they went to see flowers and tributes at Marlborough House laid in tribute to Prince Philip following his death aged 99 six days ago. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall seemed moved by the scale of the tributes, which also included notes of condolence and drawings by children that had been left in the Royal Parks and Buckingham Palace. The flowers and condolence messages were moved from outside the palace and the parks to the nearby private gardens at Marlborough House, which is the headquarters of Commonwealth Foundation.
A Clarence House spokesman said: ‘Today, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Marlborough House Gardens to view a selection of flowers left by members of the public in memory of The Duke of Edinburgh. The flowers and condolence messages have been moved from outside Buckingham Palace and within the Royal Parks to the private gardens at Marlborough House. The Royal Parks will continue to move the flowers during this period of National Mourning. Marlborough House Gardens was chosen so as not to encourage crowds from gathering outside The Royal Palaces due to Covid-19.’
Charles is grieving for his father and he’s probably been dealing with a lot of old resentments and new understanding of what his father really did in his lifetime. I swear, The Crown only underlined the fact that the Windsors are inflicting generational trauma on each other, over and over.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Sorry for his loss. Now take all those feelings and put them to work by making things right with Harry and getting William in check once and for all.
Agreed. Be better Charles!
And the loss is sometimes felt more after the burial when the guests have left…when you see that empty chair, that new family photo, your other surviving parent, their belongings, the empty bed…
“And the loss is sometimes felt more after the burial when the guests have left…when you see that empty chair, that new family photo, your other surviving parent, their belongings, the empty bed”…” YES
And they can start by taking their mental health PR seriously and get William into therapy.
I’ve been thinking how they were saying that William was the one who encouraged Harry to go into therapy in the first place. While I continue to question the veracity of that, considering how they never gave a toss about Diana’s or Meghan’s mental health. Still, IF true, I feel like William only encouraged it because he thought it would make Harry look weak compared to himself. That he wanted to be seen as the strong, stable one. When in reality, he needs therapy as much as Harry did.
I don’t think therapy would help William. I think he’s so angry, so full of himself that nothing would get in.
I think William might need better living through chemistry. No shame in that.
100%. Take that same energy and emotion and put it into repairing things with your son and daughter-in-law, and begin to build a relationship/bond with your newest grandson and soon-to-be granddaughter.
It’s always difficult to loose a loved one and it’s hard to see others grieve. For that my heart really breaks for their pain and loss. The fact that they allow the tabloids and pettiness to take center stage and try to put the blame on PH or Duchess Meghan is shameless and unforgivable.
The sad thing is, he really does love his sons, I think, but he’s such an insecure, vacant narcissist that everything and everyone is sacrificed to his fragile ego. A weak reed on whom no one can rely. That’s a heavy lift for ole Camilla.
If he did love Harry he wouldn’t have cut off his security while the world knew where he was and the threat to their life was high. And then leak to the press that he was still paying for their security. Plus he was cut off financially. A parent doesn’t do that. I will never forgive him for putting their life in danger.
I agree. I think there is love in this family, it’s just so dysfunctional in every way. From “Queen first” to waiting for someone to die to have your life’s purpose filled, to having a public eye on you at all times to “duty” to English cultural norms to having your every waking moment ruled by outsiders who employ you and also you employ. There are weird boundaries and then there are no boundaries with this crew. I have so much empathy for these people and I only want them to get better. ASAP. Before Archie and Louis and Charlotte and new Sussex get too screwed up.
I don’t think Charles is capable of loving anyone, and that includes himself.
this is what Camilla wanted. Camilla does have the extra benefit of having her home to retreat to so she’s not under the same roof as Charles as much and can entertain her Parker Bowles children and grandchildren.
Remember what he said in his and Diana’s engagement interview — “whatever love means.” In the limited capability he has of loving anyone, I believe he loves his sons….but it clearly isn’t nearly enough.
Camilla seems aok with it all.
Narcissists cannot love. Not really. Their “love” is destruction and abuse. He doesn’t love his sons.
Me continuing to not give a shit. …… he pulled the security his son and wife and grandson so desperately needed and refused to help make
the UK a safer place for them. He is obviously incapable of being a decent human being. He’s dead to me.
I have absolutely no idea what the relationship between charles and philip has been over the past decade but i think that despite their differences earlier is charles’ life, there was plenty of love there in the end.
Just wanted to say that Kaiser is the master of picking the exact right photograph to go with any given story, every single time.
Absolutely. The photo choices are consistently brilliant.
“Darling, I will point over here, while you gesture over in that direction. Go.”
It isn’t a popular opinion around here – and I can certainly see the point, given what he has done to his son and daughter-in-law from cutting off affection, phone calls and security to actively leaking to the tabs – but I do have genuine pity for Charles. I an not sure that he ever had a chance: being treated simultaneously as an irritatingly delicate and sensitive waste of space by his father and the precious future king by courtiers and the nation must have created a level of cognitive dissonance that was insuperable. He’s simply never been or felt good enough, and so has become a rather pitiful backstabber, with little genuine support, isolated from his decent son on the one hand and at the mercy of the bullying, thuggish PWT on the other. Much like my own father, I doubt that Charles was ever able to call out the DofE for his cruelty and neglect (what terrible parents they were), and now it is too late, forever too late. Grief and resentment are horrible twin burdens.
You’re not the only one. I pity him too. He frustrates and angers me to no end, and he’s a coward but I don’t think he’s all bad. He has many good qualities that I think Harry takes after. I think Harry feels the same way.
I don’t think there are too many people who don’t have genuine pity for Charles, and the shit way he was brought up. We can be angered by his choices and disrespect them, while still pitying the root cause.
I agree. Watching The Crown Seasons 3 and then 4 was very interesting because in S3 Charles was portrayed quite sympathetically, then in S4 he started off OK and then, woah, he married Diana and turned into a raging bastard. There was a bit of whiplash there, but Josh O’Connor was so good that it still felt realistic. Charles had a very strange, alienating, toxic upbringing and existence, all in the public eye. It wasn’t healthy, so it’s no surprise he’s not healthy either.
The Queen Mother spoiled him so he felt himself the center of the Universe. She even facilitated Charles affair with Camilla by lending the property in Birkhall as a safe house, While C and C were married to others.
I agree.
I also think that Charles has enough self awareness to understand that part of William’s problem is legitimate, diagnosable mental illness. I think he’s juggling the competing demands of a mentally ill (and also deeply unpleasant) child who lives his life very publicly, another child and his family who are being maltreated, and a totally rigid system that empowers the sick child. Add to that the deeply conflicting emotions he has for his parents.
I do too, to a point. Losing a parent has to be so difficult (I’m lucky enough to still have both of mine alive and relatively well) and it seems to me that it would be even tougher when there wasn’t necessarily a great relationship between the parent and the child. Like you said, grief and resentment are horrible burdens.
However, now Charles has an opportunity to do better with his own sons and grandchildren. As others have said he could at least take steps towards repairing his relationship with Harry / Meghan, for a start. If he can’t even do that then IDK what it would take.
I do feel sorry for Charles sometimes. I think as bad as people think he is, william is 10 times worst. I really feel william does a lot of bad and Charles gets the blame for it. Not saying Charles isn’t messed up and done messed up things but william is way worse.
Maybe not a popular opinion but an incredible explanation that makes sense as to why Charles behaves the way he does.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that your opinion isn’t a popular one ‘around here’. I think that while a lot of commenters might not ‘like’ Charles, very few think he’s a monster. As you said in your very eloquent comment, he really didn’t stand much of a chance of turning out to be a good man. His parents both ignored and bullied him and then let him get away with shit he shouldn’t have been allowed to get away with to assuage THEIR guilt. Camilla has lasted as long as she has because she knew the key to holding on to Charles was to treat him like a KING, as if he was the most important man in the world.
I know a lot of people hate Charles over what happened to Diana but, in my opinion, that marriage was a huge mistake from beginning to end. He never loved her and allowed himself to be bullied and manipulated (hi Camilla) into marrying Diana, a very young woman with her own issues. And let’s not forget that Diana fucked around on Charles too. I’ve never blamed Charles for Diana’s death either. They had been divorced for years and the choices that Diana made after her marriage ended were HER choices.
I will never forget how Charles behaved at Harry and Meghan’s wedding; he was SO happy to be able to step in and be there for Meghan. He was beaming as he walked her down the aisle. Charles was also very attentive to Doria, making sure she didn’t feel neglected. The tragedy of what happened afterwards is partly because Charles wasn’t a strong enough (or good enough) man to continue the way he started with Harry and Meghan.
As many have said, I hope that Charles takes the grief and regret for lost opportunities to grab some guts and make some REAL changes. It’s not too late. He doesn’t want his own sons to end up standing in front of a pile of flowers grieving over what might have been.
I know a lot of people thought that Charles walking Meghan down the aisle was pure self-promotion, but I can’t agree with that. He was beaming and on the verge of tears, so proud, as if Meghan was his own daughter. I thought he seemed truly honored that she would ask him to do that for her. I’m tearing up myself just thinking about it. But that memory makes the current situation all the more painful.
I agree. He’s not that good of an actor to be able to fake that true fatherly delight on that day. I still think he’s thrilled that Harry married his true love, like Charles wanted to. I just think he has handled certain family tensions between his sons and his siblings and parents badly.
@miranda I see why these ppl lord their blood line and privilege over pleabs, in their eyes, the lesser of them among men. How gullible, easy and willing to be sold a performance as genuine given all we know. Where did Meghan ever say she asked Charles to accompany her down the aisle when I know for a fact she would have been willing and comfortable to to it herself. For one, she barely knew him for him to be “giving her away” in place of her dad.
She would have likely wanted her mother to do it and got shot down bc it’s not what’s done. What else was Charles going to do with his duties as a prince as a worldwide audience tuned into the biggest PR spectacle the royal family has to offer, a royal wedding.
Nothing is how it looks. Meghan was a means to an end. Nothing more. Judge a man by his actions, and his performance that day was for Future King Charles’s benefit. Nothing more. And we this bc of how he allowed her to be treated once they were married despite his own power to do more.
I don’t think Charles was forced. He walked away from other women like Davina Sheffield. Charles blames others for his own actions and choices. If Charles did not love Diana he had no business marrying her. Diana was rejected by Charles after she had the heir and spare. Since divorce was discouraged, I doubt Diana wanted to be celibate after Charles moved on with Camlla and was seeing other women like Janet Jenkins. Diana DID go into the marriage in good faith. Charles did not. Diana would always have been connected to Charles since they were co parents since they divorced and shared custody.
It was not “his” marriage it was supposed to be “their” marriage. I think Charles just wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to get the heirs and have the mistress(es) around.
I am in agreement with you there. I believe Charles’ happiness on Harry’s wedding day was genuine. You could see it plainly. Just like it was not that difficult to see Kate + co’s disdain. I’m in the camp that thinks Charles is, at the end of the day, too weak to stand up for what is right. (Which still does not excuse what he allowed to happen to H&M at all.)
@Andrew’s Nemesis
You have hit the nail on the head. Everything I have ever read about PC and PP indicate that it was an impossibly fractured relationship. Charles was too sensitive and really too much of an introvert for Phillip who clearly favored the more athletic, outgoing Anne and made no bones about it. Don’t even get me started on the Queen. She left his upbringing to anyone but her and IIRC went to Malta with PP for several (?) months when Charles (and maybe Anne?) was little. Basically (in my opinion) abandoning him. I’m glad he had his grandmother who by all accounts adored him, but can you imagine what went on in his mind????
I have no love for Charles, but I can feel for him, and in this instance I do.
Elizabeth would spend weeks or even months in Malta and then return to the UK when Philip was at sea. I think the children visited once but otherwise stayed with their grandparents for those stretches of time. Charles and Anne probably had time to get used to her being there (though she was also gone doing numerous events at the same time) and then she’d be off again. Meanwhile their dad was just gone. Doesn’t create much stability. In military families there’s usually the one parent there when the other is gone or the whole family moves to the station. This was like the worst possible situation.
I agree, he has no backbone but he’s not a bad man even though he’s done some bad things. I’m glad he is finally able to be with his great love…now he needs to be a leader and get his sons on the same page.
I think Charles spin doctors created the Great Love Myth. It was not as if Charles was the next Prince Edward (Duke of Windsor) who moved heaven and earth to marry Wallis Simpson and did not want any other woman once he met Wallis. Charles had many other women in his life and he did not want to marry Camilla Shand when he met her. He did not even tell her they had a future together and she married the man she wanted to marry, Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles was serious about many other women and had another married mistress Lady Dale Tryon. He proposed to Amanda Knatchbull who turned him down. Camilla has kept her own residence to retreat to and no matter what, Camilla is secure since Charles cannot afford to get another divorce. If he loved Camilla he would never have married anybody else. He treated Diana badly, having the heir and spare and then ditching her
I pity a lot of people I despise. After reading Mary Trump’s book about how her uncle was raised, I even pity Donald Trump. “Pity” has nothing to do with “like”, to me, and I kind of don’t understand why it would. So I also pity Charles. And I think he’s cold, manipulative, entirely self-absorbed, and cruel.
I completely agree, Charles never had a chance. I don’t say that as forgiveness, because he certainly doesn’t need or want mine, but I am starting to sincerely believe that in Charles, we have seen a narcissist raised, not born. In Charles, both nature and nurture were faulty, from before he took his first breath
Charles did get to voice his unhappiness over his childhood to his biographer Dimbleby. This was in his authorized biography, The Prince of Wales.
Agreed.
And doing so while his parents were alive.
This is no different than what Prince Harry did while talking to Oprah.
This family has been long conditioned to believe in exchange of the privilege they’re enjoying they must sacrifice their happiness. That’s why Charles settled for Diana, William settled for Kate and they’re acting so surprised that Harry chose Meghan.
Makes you wonder if after Harry’s decision and seeing him be so happy and successful will these old mindsets start to slowly crumble. Maybe with the younger royals.
The thing is, if anything, Harry and Meghan proved that a Royal can marry for love AND be successful in fulfilling his or her duties. Harry did his job just as well while with Meghan as he did before, and Meghan was great at the job. They were a huge asset and the press and the family went and ruined it all. The RF together with the press has a lot of power to set the narrative, and the people who care about the RF will accept that narrative.
They screwed up so badly.
The Queen didn’t settle. Do you think it surprises her that Charles and William did?
The Queen didn’t settle? She was in an arranged marriage and had to put up with her husband cheating on her.
HM and Philip weren’t an arranged marriage. In fact her parents were apparently pretty against it but they later gave in. Philip was a cheat but HM did love him out of choice rather than necessity.
Maybe she didn’t settled and genuinely married Philip out of love. But if she wasn’t the queen could she have stayed this long in this marriage when it was an open secret he was cheating on her ?
Liz did not settle for Phil. She wanted to marry Philip and nobody else. She was madly in love with him.
PP was literally thrust in front of her by his uncle Dickie (Lord Pedo Mountbatten). HE made sure PP was going to get Liz for a wife as he deemed her the most suitable for PP. While I have no doubt, a 13 yr old Liz saw him in his uniform and swooned for the older good looking (17 yr old) PP, it was HIGHLY encouraged and pushed on PP’s side.
Her family may not have been thrilled at a deposed prince, but we all know how young girls can be with their first intense crush. I don’t recall any other men being paraded in front of Liz after that, so in a sense, he *was* her only “choice” as well. Don’t think she even wanted to look at any one else.
As others have mentioned, Philip was the Queens only real rebellion against her parents, they (especially her mother) were against the marriage. They were hoping she’d choose a young brit from the aristo circles, and made sure she’d meet plenty of them, but to no wain. Philip and the queen mum didn’t have the best relationship in the first years of their marriage and later when Elisabeth became queen.
The Queen had the power in the marriage she was Queen he was married in. DIfferent situation for Diana who was expendable.
Charles didn’t settle for Diana and William didn’t settle for Kate. They were both heavily pressured to marry them for duty purposes. Neither seemed to accept either as a wife in anything, but title. It’s just a job title.
William still has affairs and Charles never let go of his mistresses or Camilla. Harry married for love and duty.
That’s what I meant by settled. And this concept of being pressured into marriage has always seemed odd to me. They are the heirs what are the courtiers going to do if they refused to get married. Its not like they can get rid of them.
Isn’t that what settling means?
It’s not really the same as “settling”…. arranged marriage is in another category. As for the “cheating” it’s been par for the course throughout royal history. What King of England did not have a mistress? Quite common, if not expected.
If it had not been Diana that he married it would have been another young aristo. Diana never considered the marriage arranged, she fell for Charles and felt he truly loved her. William I believe would have married Isabella Calthorpe had she been interested in him. She wasn’t.
The Queen didn’t “settle” for Phillip.
It was the opposite, Phillip was the one who settled.
His Uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was looking for a way to be closer into the Royals. He had good looking Phillip who was doing very well as a Navy Lt. During WWll , built him up to the King and Queen Elizabeth, who obviously wasn’t taking Phillip all that seriously.
Phillip finished his time in the Navy, had future plans on going on in his career. He never had any notions of being married.
It’s true, Elizabeth had fallen in love as a thirteen year old. Not so sure Phillip felt the same, but he certainly did his duty, and carved a unique role out for himself.
Philip dated many others before Elizabeth came of age. The actress Cobina Wright wrote of her being serious about Prince Philip and there were others.
You got it! The fact that Harry is happy to live a normal life and make a living makes them crazy.
I do wonder if Charles does any kind of introspection because he and family continue to make the same mistakes over and over. But again he has another chance to make amends with Harry. I’m not sure that anything will change though. He’s the King Regent and he has William on his side.
I’m hoping Harry’s decision is forcing some introspection.
I have my doubts. The uniform debacle tells me that it’s business as usual.
Charles’ end “prize” is within sight. He is NOT going to do anything to really shake that up, whether it’s calling in William or really, truly reaching out to Harry. IF Charles does, I think it’s when he has his crown firmly in place first.
Besides, I think as far as “introspection”, Charles’ entitlements and habits are too deeply ingrained for that at this point in his life. He may be “aware” on some *deep* level, but they will never surface and/or be acted on.
Seeing someone in pain like this makes me far less likely to dunk on them in the future.
I look at these pictures and certainly do feel compassion for his sorrow.
And yet…this is the same family that made the two boys walk behind Diana’s coffin and maintain a stiff upper lip in public.
So I look at his grief-stricken face and wonder if he thinks back to when his two young sons were trotted out to perform stoicism despite the shocking loss of their mother. And I wonder if he’s sorry, and if he’d do things differently given the chance.
It humanizes him to show his sadness this way but it also makes me feel just a little angry on behalf of Harry as a child.
Hm.
He’s able to feel his son’s pain, but only after experiencing it himself. Utterly without empathy.
I feel sorry for Charles as a son who’s lost his father. I’m sure this isn’t an easy time even if Philip wasn’t in the running for father of the year.
A spot of empathy: it must suck to grieve publicly.
He is grieving about his father – I understand it and feel for him. But I hope he doesn’t forget that he is father too and now he has a rift between him and his sons.
According to reports, there’s no rift between him and William. They’ve grown very close over the last year.
I don’t buy that for a second.
Chuck might be coward, weak, egocentric, Camilla-focused, but what he definitely isn’t – stupid. I bet he knows and clearly sees all the attempts of Cambs’s (or wills) camp to make William King over him. Last 6 months this PR push for it was incredible. it was according to polls, according to “experts”, according to God and to Devil – etc. Charles concidered “slimmed-down” monarchy as him, Cams, Will& family AND Harry and family. Now bacause of Wills (and his actions towards Harry) he has to accept this MAGA7, and I think there is not something he likes.
The fact that the first days after Philip’s death we only saw Charles, Andrew (!!!!), Sophie and Ed, and haven’t seen Cambs (still they try to sell some good PR through the tabloids and funny how it’s all about kids) speaks volumes to me. Cambs are not close to Queen nor Charles.Otherwise we’ve already got thousands of stories how Kate comforts Queen feeding Queen her handmade chutney and how wills helps Charles to stay strong.
Those reports are just made-up piffle to feed the William stans. Charles may have been a shitty husband and father, but he is very tactical. The minute he becomes King he will hang William out to dry on all the rope he’s been letting him have by not stepping in to manage him. He and his lazy ass wife will have to start working and working hard.
UnionSnack, as someone on another thread had suggested, we might not have seen Lazy and Lazier because they were out of the country, sunning themselves.
It’s easier to understand the awful decisions, abuse and repeating patterns of harm in narcissistic families when you remember they are essentially cults. People are coerced to repeat harm because they are severely punished in the family system if they step out of line with the role and expectations they’ve been assigned. It’s awful to experience and to observe from the outside as well.
All the members of this cult, what we’re seeing here in terms of emotions with C.,-is more likely to be self-concern than empathy for or concern for harm done to others.
I don’t know – I don’t give William a mental illness pass. Charles maybe. The royal family wasn’t exactly into talking about mental health during Charles (or Philip’s) formative years and there was plenty of brokenness to go around and reason to struggle. William, however, has made the last 3 years of his life about mental health – he’s been around resources on top of resources and even gotten a lot of sympathy for his mother’s loss – if he’s choosing to be an angry brat, it’s not because he doesn’t know better – he’s choosing not to do better, and that’s different than people who suffer under crushing depression or mental illness that is controllable only through medicine or constant therapy. He COULD work towards mental health – he has all the resources to do so. I think he’s choosing his saltiness.
Just because someone suffers doesn’t mean they’re not abusive. Most abusers cry in front of their victims to manipulate them.
It’s always a disappointment to see people think we can’t hold someone accountable for their actions because they are suffering. Yes, I have compassion for his suffering. But I also don’t tolerate racism and abuse. He is a grown up, he could have made different choices. No one forced him to treat Diana like crap. No one forced him to withdraw security from his son.
After a parent dies there can be a lot of reflection and reckoning. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to reshape the relationship with his sons, perhaps in ways not obvious to the public. Don’t we speculate here that someone told William to stand down and be quiet this week? Harry’s leaving and now his father’s death has got to have given him a lot to think about
We always talk about family trauma—but another piece of the puzzle is the abusive British media.
Can you imagine having every move dissected and gaslighted from birth?
And them you have mommy and daddy’s employees to deal with, who are more tham happy to sell you out to the press.
It’s so sad I feel sorry for him
Maybe it’s the lighting on those pics, but, Charles looks closer to 100 than 70 himself. Stuff starts to catch up with you.
They both look like they’ve aged ten or fifteen years all the sudden. Camilla especially has something very odd going on with her eyebrows that looks like something a 90-year-old would do makeup wise.
I have compassion for anyone who has lost a loved one. But they staged a public moment of grief. I’m not suggesting that Charles pain is not real. I remember his obvious grief when the Queen Mother died. But so much of how they have handled this week has been about trying to use Philips death for positive PR. I have no doubt in my mind they could have nipped all these speculations and narratives about the Sussexes in the bud but they didn’t because they were clearing hoping to use this moment to (1) try to emotionally blackmail Harry, and (2) make the Sussexes look less than. I do have the belief that Charles from this standpoint is trapped between his extremely popular mother and his pathological son who is colluding with the media. He knows that William won’t hesitate to sell him out to the media because in that respect William is just like he made deals with the media. The loss of his father should make him more concerned about the abuse that his son and daughter-in-law are being subjected. Should make him want to repair that relationship. But I think he is more concerned about himself. This is a man who colluded with the media to protect Camilla from negative press. But didn’t lift a finger to protect his son and the woman he loves.
@ Catherine, you would also think that the deluge of negative press after the affair with Camilla became public, but I guess most people just shrugged it off as they have for the countless number of royal men taking on mistresses, which I believe he told Diana that he wasn’t going to be the first royal male NOT to have a mistress.
I have compassion for anyone who has lost a loved one. But they staged a public moment of grief. I’m not suggesting that Charles pain is not real. I remember his obvious grief when the Queen Mother died. But so much of how they have handled this week has been about trying to use Philips death for positive PR. I have no doubt in my mind they could have nipped all these speculations and narratives about the Sussexes in the bud but they didn’t because they were clearing hoping to use this moment to (1) try to emotionally blackmail Harry, and (2) make the Sussexes look less than. I do have the belief that Charles from this standpoint is trapped between his extremely popular mother and his pathological son who is colluding with the media. He knows that William won’t hesitate to sell him out to the media because in that respect William is just like him. He had made deals with the media. The loss of his father should make him more concerned about the abuse that his son and daughter-in-law are being subjected. Should make him want to repair that relationship. But I think he is more concerned about himself. This is a man who colluded with the media to protect Camilla from negative press. But didn’t lift a finger to protect his son and the woman he loves.
@ Catherine I didn’t see it that way. It may be good PR but it’s also a public acknowledgement of the flowers and tributes from the people. I bet the visit and the Instagram pictures are much appreciated by people. It’s unfortunate that their record leads us to question their sincerity.
Nothing they do is sincere
And it was done in front of cameras.
So you see how much you miss your father. Imagine how much your son misses having a father?
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
– Philip Larkin
Always loved that poem Rnot.
I do have a fondness for Prince Charles. Charles has for most of his life been like a dejected intellectual naturally introverted puppy. It’s only when somebody like Camilla takes him seriously that he shines.
He dearly loves his water colors, his black spider letters on environmental issues, his cello playing. I think he’s more suited to an academic career than public life (and no, professors are not that bright–they can focus well). He adores the opera ergo “Uptown Girl” sounds like brutally naive music to his ears.
The genetic salad-spinner governing the Royal Family has so many random caprices: you can find unusual brains, athletic talent, artistic and musical talent, and farming and gardening–not to mention huge swathes of stupidity and narcissism. I think that the cherry brandy episode of 1962 really marked him out for undeserved public ridicule that has been consistent to this day.
Charles is no intellectual. He got so so grades during his school years but latched on to mentors, some rather dubious like Van Der Post. Charles was not nice to some in his life who became dispensable. He rejected Lady Tryon the other married mistress and he had called her the only woman who understood him. He would not even speak to her on the phone when she was dying. And when Diana did her duty and had the heir and spare he rejected her. I see him doing the same to Harry.
Exactly.
And he did do this to Harry.
Harry said: “I never thought that I would have my security removed, because I was born into this position. I inherited the risk. So that was a shock to me. That was what completely changed the whole plan.”
Harry said his own father, “stopped taking” his calls. While Harry said that they are speaking again, their relationship has not healed. “I feel really let down. He’s been through something similar. He knows what pain feels like. I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened,”
Charles is not an intellectual. He is a snob and a dilettante. I’m from a family that adores both classical stuff, from ancient music to opera to modernist composers, and also loves pop music like “Uptown Girl.” No one likes everything, but loving opera makes someone more likely to appreciate any kind of good music, and anyone who turns up their nose at something for the masses — well, that’s what rich snobs did about Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
I do feel sorry for Charles in many ways.
The difficult relationship to his father, being a sensitive introvert versus the outgoing, handsome, brazen, popular Phillip, I feel he never felt he lived up to his expectations (and the publics), must have been difficult.
The distant relationship to his mother, whom he probably needed emotionally a whole lot more because of his character.
The eternally long wait to be King, he is old now, and even if he’s healthy, it’s a difficult age to shoulder that burden so late.
His marriage troubles, in which he shoulders much of the blame, and the guilt that it probably causes.
The difficult relationship with his sons, who are so different in character. The complicated relationship with his siblings.
I admire him for traversing everything in the glaring public eye and for the great things he has quitely done for the environment and organic farming, sustainabilty of the estates and the Prices Trust. I do wish for him to have his moment in the sun, however long he is King.
Charles is by no means sensitive. If he were he would not have gotten involved with his friends’ wives, Camilla Parker Bowles and Lady tryon. He treated Diana horribly and now he is treating Harry badly. It is not his parent’s fault. He is no intellectual but at least he’s not lazy like william.
He’s “sensitive” in that he’s very easily wounded himself, but not “sensitive” in caring about others’ feelings.
Charles never shouldered any blame in the demise of his first marriage. Junor said he and Camilla have cooperated with her on their biographies which include Diana bashing (after she died). I doubt he shoulders any blame and has blamed others.
I agree.
Right now PC is blaming Harry for “untruths”
“unfair” and “unkind things” said about him.
PC got busted plain and simple. He never thought Harry would out him. PC should have never behaved the way he did. If he hadn’t stripped Harry of his security, his financial means and his ability to contact him then PC wouldn’t be licking his wounds.
It does bother me the way PC was raised. Yes, it was an extremely unhealthy environment. However, he didn’t learn from what happened to him. Even Harry said: “He’s been through something similar. He KNOWS what pain feels like. I will always love him but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened.”
I am not surprised that Charles feels so emotional, but I am surprised that he’s showing it so publicly? Is it just me, or does it seem like his feelings are on display almost in spite of himself, somehow? I feel like he didn’t expect to feel this emotional or sad about his father dying, or about the way the public has come out to mourn this man. But it’s also like…good for him, in a sense, of finally being able to tap into that vulnerability somehow, at long last. Hopefully he uses some of that sh-t to propel himself forward and repair some of the damage he’s done to his relationship w/ Harry and Meghan.
I dunno. Seeing these pictures makes me feel like life is complicated, and we love the complicated people in our lives in spite of a lot of what goes on. I don’t feel *bad* for Charles. It’s just, I get it. It’s not easy. It’s even less easy when you’ve spent what seems to be the bulk of your life running away from having to be so vulnerable, all while complaining that nobody understands you, and how Camilla is actually your emotional support affair partner, so you’re allowed to be unfaithful technically speaking. I wonder if this will prompt him on any level to start seeing how much damage his selfishness has caused the people in his life, but I honestly feel that’s doubtful too. So I dunno.