Prince Charles is on of the most famous figures in the entire world. As the future King of England, there has been no shortage of books, documentaries, movies, and TV shows exploring different aspects of his life.
Between all this multimedia, you might think there is nothing new to learn about the prince. However, he is a very private man, and he’s kept many details of his life hidden whenever possible. These strange details are sure to change how you see Charles.
Don’t believe it? Check out the oddest facts that you never knew about Prince Charles!
He met Diana while dating her sister
The split between Charles and Diana was incredibly ugly. And over the years, many writers have explored the various warning signs that could have told us Charles and Diana would not have their own happily ever after.
In retrospect, one of the biggest warning signs was that Charles actually met Diana while he was dating her sister. As Marie Claire reports, the 28-year-old Charles dated the 22-year-old Sarah Spencer in 1977. After they broke up, a delightfully-blunt Spencer said she wouldn’t have married the man “if he were the dustman or the King of England.”
But why not? “Charles makes me laugh a lot. I really enjoy being with him,” Spencer said. “But there is no chance of my marrying him. I’m not in love with him. And I wouldn’t marry anyone I didn’t love.”
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A secret magician?
Is Prince Charles secretly a trained musician? Maybe, maybe not. But we do know he is one of the biggest fans of magic in England or, perhaps, the world!
Back in 1975, Charles was invited to The Magic Circle by his great-uncle, Earl Mountbatten. This is a kind of secret society of magic lovers. We don’t know what all happens behind The Magic Circle’s doors, so it’s impossible to tell if Charles learned any magic skills himself. But as Yahoo! News points out, Charles had a 70th birthday celebration with entertainment from “Britain’s finest magicians.” For Charles, it seems the magic is still here for his secret passion nearly half a century after he joined the Circle.
A whole frog species is named after him
Does Prince Charles remind anyone else of a frog? Well, the jury’s still out on that one. But one thing we do know for sure is that he has a frog species named after him.
The Mongabay News points out that researchers discovered two previously-unknown frog species in the forests of Ecuador. Part of what made the find so startling is that threats to the environment have killed countless frogs around the world. Since Prince Charles is such a prominent environmental activist, one of the species was named hyloscirtus princecharlesi in his honor!
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The plant whisperer
Ever hear the old joke that once you’re wealthy enough, people have to say that you’re “eccentric” rather than “crazy?” That comes to mind with this next fact: Prince Charles talks to plants!
Express reports that in addition to speaking to plants, Charles actually shakes the branch of a tree like it is a hand after he plants it. These are undeniably quirky habits, but since Charles wants to encourage others to plant trees, we aren’t surprised he is humanizing the process as much as possible.
He doesn’t travel lightly
Prince Charles has homes all around the world, and he’s also a veteran world traveler who attends numerous events each year. Because of that, you might think the prince has learned to travel lightly.
Instead, Charles has learned the exact opposite habit. The International Business Times reported that in Tom Bower’s book REBEL Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles, he wrote about Charles’ bizarre traveling habit. When the prince and Camilla Parker Bowles visited a friend in northeastern England, Charles requested that his entire bedroom set be brought along!
Just to recap: that means the friend needed to replace everything in his guestroom with all of Charles and Camilla’s stuff, which included special linens and an orthopedic bed. In addition to other weird things he packed (like a custom toilet seat), Charles also brought along not one, but two different landscape paintings depicting the Highlands of Scotland.
Shocking us all, Charles was never invited back.
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A bad gift-giver
Prince Charles is one of the wealthiest people in the world. When he wants something, he always manages to get it. You might think this would make him an excellent giver of gifts, but that is far from the truth.
One incident that illustrates this is when Ozzy Osbourne got into a nasty biking accident. The rocker suffered from fractured ribs, a fractured collarbone, and severe neck pain. The Evening Standard reports that when Charles heard about the accident, he sent over a nice bottle of Scotch.
When is a nice bottle not a nice bottle, though? As Sharon Osbourne pointed out, her husband had been sober for years, so Ozzy wasn’t going to be touching this gift. “We heard from Prince Charles and – never let anyone say he’s a bad guy ’cause he’s all right by the Osbournesm “ she later said on her talk show. “He sent my husband a bottle of Scotch, which of course he’s not going to drink.”
He has a wine-powered car
When we first heard that Prince Charles drives an Aston Martin, we were tempted to joke that the prince must like to pretend to be James Bond. When we heard how he fuels the car, though, it seems like the vehicle really was designed by Q Branch!
As The Guardian reports, Charles powers this particular car with “surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process.” The prince likes to have a fuel source that is more environmentally friendly than traditional gasoline. But we have to say that an English noble who fuels his car with leftover wine and cheese seems like something right out of a parody comic.
RELATED: Prince Charles Took The First Step Toward Mending His Relationship With Harry
Seriously bullied as a child
The thing about noble blood is that you are born with it or you’re not. Some people marry into the Royal Family, but Charles was destined for greatness from the moment he was born.
You might think this kind of privileged status would lead to a very privileged upbringing. But once Charles left homeschooling and attended school with others, The Radio Times reports he was regularly and seriously bullied.
Charles said he was “relentlessly bullied” and refers to his time in school as “a prison sentence.” But why would so many pick on their future king? Some bullies may have noticed how “homesick” Charles was while he attended boarding school and took it out on him. Others were likely annoyed that due to Charles’ presence, they couldn’t drink, smoke, or get involved with the normal boarding school shenanigans.