Innholdsfortegnelse for YOU King Charles III - Commemorative edition i You South Africa

I WAS fortunate enough to be sent to London when Queen Elizabeth died to cover the events leading up to her funeral and the momentous day itself. It was incredible to share in a moment in history – but for someone like me, who’s covered royal stories for years, it was also a thrill to watch the royal family walking in sombre parades mere metres from where I was standing. And Charles was front and centre of it all. The man who’d waited in the wings for 70 years was finally king and ripples went through the crowd whenever people saw him. Charles is now also head of the world’s most famous family and all eyes are on him. Tense times lie ahead – the UK is a complex country…

DESPITE his unhappiness at school, Charles admitted those turbulent years helped him discover a lot about himself. “I learnt about my own abilities and disabilities, which taught me to accept challenges and take initiative,” he once said. Which is why he decided to go to university after Gordonstoun instead of straight to military college in preparation for a career in the British armed forces, like most young royal men before him had done. The prince didn’t go to just any university either but to Cambridge, one of the top tertiary institutions in the world. He was accepted into Trinity College and initially majored in anthropology and archaeology before switching to history. When he graduated in 1970 with a lower second-class Bachelor of Arts degree (between 50% and 60%), he became…

WHEN it comes to the women in Charles’ life, the obvious two come to mind – Diana and Camilla. But before he married for the first time in 1981 at the age of 32, Charles had a reputation as a playboy prince and was regarded as the world’s most eligible bachelor. He dated many women – a posse dubbed Charlie’s Angels by the press – and reportedly had 20 relationships from the age of 19 until he met Lady Diana Spencer. Charles also had two broken engagements and lost his heart several times to the young beauties he dated. The girls he fancied were usually high society It girls and daughters of aristocrats. Here are some who caught the eye of the royal romancer. Charles wanted to marry Lady Jane…

CHARLES has always been keen to stress that he’s “just an ordinary person in an extraordinary position” and wants to be treated like anyone else. But when you grow up the son of a queen and heir to the throne you aren’t treated like an ordinary person at all. You have people at your beck and call, ready to respond to your every whim and indulge all your idiosyncrasies. HIS MAJESTY’S WARDROBE The king likes to look good in a suit, handkerchief billowing from his breast pocket and a flower in his buttonhole – but no pocket flaps. His formal wardrobe is almost exclusively made of double-breasted suits from Anderson & Sheppard, of London’s exclusive Savile Row tailors. His shirts from Turnbull & Asser, which are made of the finest,…

PRINCESS Elizabeth was 22 in May 1948 and on her first official visit to Paris with Prince Philip, whom she had married less than a year earlier. To the outside world, it was business as usual. The princess smiled and waved to crowds, fulfilled all her official engagements, shook hands with dignitaries and leaders, made speeches and generally blew everyone away. “The French are obsessed with our royal family,” Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper reported. But what few people realised was the princess wasn’t at her best: she was suffering from morning sickness because she was four months pregnant with her first child. There were different royal and social protocols in those days so there was no formal announcement that the princess was pregnant, as there are these days when a…

CHARLES was just nine years old when his mother announced her firstborn was to become the Prince of Wales. “I intend to create my son Charles Prince of Wales today,” Queen Elizabeth announced on 26 July 1958 in a pre-recorded message played at the Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales. “When he is grown up, I will present him to you at Caernarfon Castle.” The castle – the name of which is often anglicised as Carnarvon Castle – is in northwest Wales and is widely regarded as one of the greatest buildings of the Middle Ages. It would be 11 years before Charles would have his investiture ceremony at the historic fortress to officially mark his title – and for the awkward young schoolboy, his mother’s declaration was nothing…

BEFORE Charles became king and climbed to the top of the royal ladder, he was the holder of many grand titles: Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Baron of Renfrew, Earl of Carrick, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. But there’s one title that’s rather more universal to a man of his age – grandfather. And it’s arguably the one closest to his heart. Being a granddad brings him great joy, a friend of the king says. “Charles regards it as something of a luxury, as many grandparents do. He can have the pleasure of spending time with the children without the burden of being responsible for their discipline and everything else that goes into bringing up kids. All grandparents need to…

WHEN 22-year-old Charles made his first speech about the environment and warned of the dangers of plastic waste and air and chemical pollution, critics decried him as “dotty”. The year was 1970, the place was Cardiff in Wales, and the occasion was the launch of the Prince of Wales Countryside Award. “The idea is that the award will be presented to organisations which have promoted projects that are a distinctive contribution towards improving the general quality and beauty of the environment,” he said. Waste was a huge problem, Charles added. “There are 55 million of us on this island using non-returnable bottles and indestructible plastic containers. It’s not difficult to imagine the mountains of refuse that we shall have to deal with somehow.” The speech, delivered when Charles was at…

THE Prince of Wales couldn’t stop smiling when he emerged from the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in West London on 21 June 1982. He’d become a father for the first time and his joy was evident for the world to see. “How do you feel, sir?” a reporter asked. “I’m obviously relieved and delighted,” he replied. “It’s marvellous. It’s a rather grown-up thing I’ve found.” Charles, who was 33 at the time, was at Diana’s bedside throughout the delivery. “I felt as though I’d shared deeply in the process of birth and as a result was rewarded by seeing a small creature who belonged to us, even though he seemed to belong to everyone else as well,” he later said, referring to the fact that he and Diana…

LIFE as a working royal can be all go-go-go: engagements, speeches ribbon-cutting ceremonies, official dinners shaking hand after hand after hand… But it’s not all serious stuff, as these delightful pictures show. There have been plenty of playful moments during Charles career – and if there’s one thing we’ve learnt about him over the years, it’s that he enjoys a good laugh and a bit of fun at his own expense.…