Diana

Charles has been a controversial royal over the years, from his affair while married to Princess Diana, and alleged persistent political interference, ...

The queen is much loved, Charles is less loved. However, in a 2018 interview marking his 70th birthday, Charles insisted he never directly meddled in party politics and understood the difference between being Prince of Wales and monarch. The disclosure of the “black spider” letters sparked a backlash against the then-future king and concerns he was overstepping his role. Charles’s opposition to bold new design first grabbed public attention in 1984 when he likened plans for altering the National Gallery in London to adding a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”. In a now-infamous series of letters between him and government ministers known as the “black spider” memos because of his scrawled handwriting, Charles quizzed them on an array of topics. Meanwhile, the depiction of his marital woes in the hit Netflix series “The Crown” is unlikely to have garnered Charles much sympathy several decades on from that troubled time.