King Charles Begged Prince William to Not 'Make the Mistake That I Made' as a Royal
Like his father King Charles, Prince William is also spending his years as a father of young kids as the heir to the throne, preparing to be monarch someday.
According to a new documentary and royal biographer Ingrid Seward, the King begged his older son to not make the same mistakes he made as a royal—particularly in terms of how he parented.
Charles's younger son Prince Harry has written about the King's parenting in Harry's 2023 memoir Spare, and how Charles put duty first, writing, 'He wasn't the kind of father who played endless rounds of tag or tossed a ball until long after dark.'It's the hope of most parents that their children do better at this thing called life than they did, and King Charles is no exception.
Particularly when it comes to parenting, the King specifically begged Prince William—his eldest son and heir to the throne—to not 'make the mistake' he did as a royal, and, in particular, as a father.
According to a new documentary William and Catherine: Putting Family First, Charles encouraged William to do just that, and what he did not do—put William's family first. Royal biographer Ingrid Seward said (via The Scottish Daily Express), 'Charles said to William, 'Please don't make the mistake that I made,' and 'I want you to enjoy your family life.''
'Charles was very insistent about this because he said, 'I was so dedicated to duty, I couldn't make way for family life in the way that I should've done'—and that's what William did,' Seward added, referring to William's wife Kate Middleton and their kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
Of Charles, Prince Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir Spare that 'He'd been an older dad, and I'd always felt that this created problems, placed barriers between us.' The Duke of Sussex added of his father, 'He wasn't the kind of father who played endless rounds of tag or tossed a ball until long after dark.'
But now, former royal butler Grand Harrold said, the King has changed, with Harrold saying Charles has reached 'a turning point' Harrold 'never' saw coming: 'I think for the first time ever you've got a King, who I think deep down if his boys need him, he would probably put them before the Crown,' Harrold said. 'That's what I believe, and that's the first time that would ever have happened in the history of the monarchy.'
While Charles's relationship with William remains strong—as evidenced by a rare joint appearance the two undertook together last week—the King's relationship with Harry is strained, as Harry said in a May 2 interview with the BBC that he isn't in touch with his father, but hopes for reconciliation as he doesn't know how long his father has left to live as Charles continues treatment for cancer.
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