With Charles III now Britain’s top monarch after his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s death, there is now renewed focus on his life. The late Queen’s eldest son has never enjoyed the same public affection as his mother, which may add to the challenges he now faces as king.
Among these is his ‘scandalous’ relationship with Camilla, who is now Charles’ Queen Consort, and her predecessor Princess Diana, whose rocky marriage and divorce with Charles continues to generate public interest. But King Charles has had a prolific dating history, even before he married Diana Spencer.
Let’s take a brief look at the controversial Royal’s dating history and love life:
‘Charlie’s Angels’
Louis Mountbatten reportedly had advised the king to “sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as he can” while he was young, and his string of romances earned him the nickname “Charlie’s Angels” from the press, before his marriage to Diana. Royal experts estimate that the Prince had more than 20 relationships between 1967 and 1980, the year he met Diana Spencer, the future Princess of Wales, according to a report by the Standard.
Diana was not the only Spencer who had a romantic relationship with the future king. Before his self-imposed deadline of marrying by the age of 30, Charles reportedly dated her older sister Sarah three years earlier and had affairs with several other society figures and aristocratic daughters.
Some Notable Romances, In No Particular Order
‘The First Love of His Life’
His first love remains unknown to this day, but according to a report by the Express, she was Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the then-Chilean ambassador. They met while Charles was studying for his undergraduate degree at Trinity College.
Lucia was a linguist who spoke four languages and had degrees from prestigious universities such as Oxford. Their first meeting occurred at a dinner party in 1969, and it was apparently love at first sight.
“She was the first real love of his life,” Lady Elizabeth Anson, Charles’ cousin and Luicia’s friend, said. While there aren’t many photos of them, one was taken in a car in 1971. While their relationship ended, it was Cruz who had first introduced Charles to Camilla Shand – now Queen Consort Camilla.
Charles & Camilla
Prince Charles and Camilla first met at a polo match in 1970 and began dating. When Charles set sail, they ended things.
Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973, while Charles married Princess Diana in 1981. Throughout their separation, Charles and Camilla maintained a close relationship.
An intimate phone call between Charles and Camilla was leaked in 1993, causing a huge scandal. Both divorced their partners in the years that followed.
Charles and Camilla made their relationship public a year after Diana’s death in 1997, and they married in 2005.
Sarah Spencer, Elder Sister of Diana
Princess Diana’s elder sister and the daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer, Sarah and Charles first met in 1977.
The couple had a brief fling in 1977 but split after she told the press about their relationship, apparently telling a reporter she wasn’t interested in marrying the heir to the throne.
In 1978, she reportedly told Time magazine: “I have no intention of marrying him. I’m not crazy about him. And I’d never marry someone I didn’t love, whether he was a dustman or the King of England.”
While many people may find it strange that their younger sister was seeing their ex-boyfriend, Sarah reportedly took pride in the fact that she set them up. “I introduced them,” she said once. “I’m Cupid.”
Anna Wallace, the One Who Dumped Charles
Anna Wallace, the wealthy Scottish landowner Hamish Wallace’s daughter, met in 1980. After reaching his self-imposed marriage age of 30, Charles began dating Anna, known among her peers as “Whiplash Wallace” for her fiery demeanour. He proposed twice, but she declined both times.
According to author Jessica Jayne, Anna ended their courtship during the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday party after Charles ignored her the entire evening, but another author believes the two split up because of the Prince’s relationship with Camilla.
Penny Junor wrote, “Charles had taken her to two successive balls and then danced with Camilla for the majority of both evenings.” “Anna dumped him, saying, ‘No one treats me like that, not even you.'”
The Rocky Road With Diana
Diana and Charles first met in 1977 through Diana’s older sister, Sarah. Charles was 28 years old, and Diana was only 16 years old. Charles recalled their first meeting as “very jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was,” calling her “great fun, and bouncy and full of life.”
The two next met in 1980, a year after Lord Mountbatten’s assassination, and private tapes show Diana sympathising with how “lonely” Charles must have felt at the time.
In February 1981, the couple announced their engagement, and during a television interview, a reporter behind the camera asked the couple, “Are you in love?” While Diana replied, “Of course,” Charles added, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”
Five months later, they married in a lavish ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral. A 2017 biography by Sally Bedell Smith describes Charles weeping on his wedding night while “the extremely turbulent” Diana was fighting bulimia.
His Divorce and Remarriage
Charles’s image took a devastating hit during his acrimonious separation from Diana.
In her extraordinary 1995 interview in which she revealed her feelings over his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana famously said “there were three people” in her marriage.
The royal couple had made the bombshell announcement they were separating in 1992, but following the fallout from the controversial sit-down with the BBC’s “Panorama” programme they finally agreed to divorce.
Giving her version of events — and admitting her own infidelity — Diana laid bare her struggles within Britain’s most famous family, criticising the royals and questioning Charles’s fitness to be king.
It drew horror in parts of the British establishment but won her public sympathy, which was only amplified after her death in a Paris car accident in 1997.
Charles was long vilified both for the extra-marital affair, which was blamed for the breakup, and in part for the royals’ poor initial handling of Diana’s death, when they were widely criticised for appearing heartless and out of step with the public.
However, he has gradually won back some public support and begrudging acceptance that he has found happiness with Camilla, whom he married in 2005.
With inputs from AFP, agencies
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