Wearing the crown (or being next in line for it) certainly comes with a special set of burdens, as King Charles knows all too well. In Tom Quinn's forthcoming new book, Yes Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, a palace staffer revealed The King's thoughts on living life in the spotlight.
In an excerpt from the book published in the Times on Feb. 6, a palace source told Quinn that "having everything done for you throughout your life by staff gives you a complacent air."
According to Quinn, The King sees having servants as both a "benefit" and a setback in some ways. Per the book, "King Charles once confessed to a member of staff that if you grow up having everything done for you, a mindset takes over in which you are permanently terrified that if you had to do it yourself, you’d be completely lost."
However, The King told the staffer that having that help was "the only benefit of being Prince of Wales [as Charles then was] 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.” It seems Prince William, the current Prince of Wales, doesn't necessarily agree with that viewpoint, as he and Princess Kate don't have live-in servants at Adelaide Cottage.
Apparently, growing up with the strict rules and protocol surrounding the Royal Family meant that Charles didn't always know how to act like an everyday dad (or son). Per the book, Prince William made a heartbreaking admission to Princess Kate that his dad "never gave me a piggyback."
Quinn's newest royal book also dived into Meghan Markle's thoughts on the royal family dynamic, with the Duchess of Sussex apparently telling a staff member, "Why do William and Charles sound so serious all the time?" The duchess's "warm, friendly, hug-everyone approach" wasn't taken too kindly at the palace, per staffers.
"She couldn’t understand why Charles, for example, was so formal with his mother," one source told Quinn. "She once said, 'But they’re mother and son—why are they so completely stiff with each other?'"
The King (along with Prince William) are also said to be "prone to tantrums if things are not done to their liking," per Quinn. Indeed, The King famously threw a fit over a pen shortly after Queen Elizabeth's 2022 death, and last summer, he was seen snapping at an aide over an umbrella.
Fortunately, King Charles seems to have embraced his more lighthearted side in recent days, taking part in everything from group hugs to impromptu palace dance parties. But behind the scenes, it seems like old habits die hard.
