18 January 2024 , 08:00
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As an heir to the throne for 70 years, King Charles had spent almost his entire life readying himself to be monarch.
But nothing could have prepared him for the drama that unfolded surrounding his youngest son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle just months after he became King. Barely three months after the death of his late mother and becoming head of state, the Sussexes' released their controversial docuseries on Netflix, where they took aim at the Firm and their time in the Royal Family. And just weeks later, Harry released his bombshell memoir Spare, which again was full of highly personal claims, including that Charles did not hug his youngest son after being told that his late mother Princess Diana had died.
Charles with Harry, Meghan and Prince William back in 2019 (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Despite the drama, the royals did not publicly address the Netflix series or memoir, with Charles going about his royal duties and engagements as usual. And according to a new biography of the King, Charles III. New King. New Court. The Inside Story by royal writer Robert Hardman, the drama had "no discernible impact" on the King, who told a friend a telling four-word comment. The book states as the drama unfolded: "Indeed, friends and family noticed that, for all the burdens and brickbats, he was as happy as they had ever seen him. 'I'm ready for it', he said of being King to an old friend during those difficult months."
It comes after a royal aide also told the author for the book that the late Queen was "as angry as I’d ever seen her" after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claimed they had her blessing to call their daughter Lilibet. The biography tells how a member of staff recounted Elizabeth II's fury following Harry and Meghan’s announcement in 2021 over the use of her childhood family nickname. The BBC later reported that a Palace source said the Queen was not asked by the Sussexes whether they could use Lilibet.
But the Sussexes’ lawyers fired off legal letters to the broadcaster and other publishers, saying the claim was false and defamatory. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan insisted at the time that the duke spoke to his grandmother in advance and would not have used the name had the monarch not been supportive.
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Mr Hardman writes however: "One privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been 'as angry as I’d ever seen her' in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter 'Lilibet', the Queen’s childhood nickname." The naming of Lilibet did not feature in Harry’s controversial memoir Spare.
Other revelations in Hardman’s book include how Prince William saw Harry’s remarks in his Netflix documentary that male members of the family can be tempted to marry someone who fits the mould rather than someone they are destined to be with as "the lowest of the low". William viewed it as "Harry making a blatant attack" on his wife Kate.