Princess Diana believed ‘Charles wasn’t cut out to be King’ and felt he was ‘stuck in a rut’ following their divorce, a royal expert has claimed.
Before her tragic death in 1997, the late royal opened up about her ex-husband’s future role as monarch to the BBC‘s then royal correspondent Jennie Bond.
Writing for The Telegraph, the expert claimed the mother-of-two told her that Charles struggled in his role as the Prince of Wales in the wake of their split.
Speaking in her Kensington Palace home, Diana allegedly said: ‘The truth is that Charles would be much happier living in Tuscany, painting the landscape or studying architecture.’
As such, Diana then told the expert that her ex-husband was ‘not cut out to be King’ as he had ‘enough problems’ as heir to the throne.
Princess Diana allegedly said Charles ‘wasn’t cut out’ to be King shortly after their divorce, a royal expert has claimed. The royal couple pictured on their honeymoon in Scotland in August 1981
What’s more, Diana allegedly told Jennie that her ex-husband needed to overhaul some of patronages and royal engagements.
At the time, the royal had already been working with environmental charities and organisations for 30 years.
The royal reportedly said: ‘He’s stuck in a rut. Just take a look at his programme. He’s doing exactly the sort of things he was doing 10 years ago.’
However, the expert – who has written three biographies on the late Queen – said that Charles’ lifelong passion for environmental causes has proven he will be a forward-thinking monarch.
In 2020, the King admitted that people thought he was ‘dotty’ when he began speaking about the importance of protecting the environment to the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales.
At the age of 21, Charles delivered his first impassioned speech about his personal concern over oil pollution and single-use plastic.
He also told how, as a teenager in the 1960s, he was concerned about the destruction of trees, wetlands and habitats as well as ‘the white heat of progress and technology to the exclusion of nature and our surroundings’.
In his 1970 address, Charles highlighted a problem that has become an illustration of humanity’s threat to nature.
The official portrait of King Charles and Queen Camilla which was released alongside their Coronation invites this month
Jennie Bond (pictured in 2016) was the BBC’s Royal Correspondent for 14 years until she stepped down in 2003
Then he had said: ‘When you think that each person produces roughly 2lb of rubbish per day and there are 55 million of us on this island using non-returnable bottles and indestructible plastic containers, it is not difficult to imagine the mountains of refuse that we shall have to deal with somehow.’
Jennie claims that her conversation with Princess Diana took place in the drawing room of her Kensington Palace home – shortly after their divorce was finalised in 1996.
The year before, Princess Diana made similar comments in her Panorama interview – describing how Charles may find it ‘suffocating’ to be King.
When asked by Martin Bashir about how Charles felt about becoming King, Diana said: ‘There was always conflict on that subject, with him, when we discussed it and I understood that conflict because it’s a very demanding role – being the Prince of Wales – but it’s an equally more demanding role being king.
In her 1995 Panorama interview, Princess Diana said Charles may find the role of King ‘suffocating’. In 2021, a report by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC covered up ‘deceitful behaviour’ by Bashir to secure the bombshell interview
Prince William lays into BBC over Martin Bashir Panorama interview
‘Being Prince of Wales produces more freedom now and being King would be a little bit more suffocating.
‘And because I know the character, I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him and I don’t know whether he could adapt to that.’
In 2021, a report by Lord Dyson concluded that the BBC covered up ‘deceitful behaviour’ by Bashir to secure the bombshell interview with Princess Diana and led to a call from Prince William for it never to be aired again.
Following the enquiry, the BBC made charitable donations to a sum of £1.42 million shared equally between seven charities linked with Princess Diana.