Whether you love or hate the Royal Family, you should give them credit for one thing: they know how to keep a lid on major news or scandals. That’s why it took so long to discover, for example, that Kate Middleton had been diagnosed with cancer. It also takes a long time to discover when royals are fighting…for example, we wouldn’t know so much about the falling out between Harry and William if Harry hadn’t written so much about it in his own memoir.
And the secrecy of the royals is understandably tightest when it comes to King Charles. That secrecy has had an unexpected side effect, though…namely, it’s generated one rumor after another concerning England’s reigning monarch. And some of these rumors are so crazy we simply had to dive in and discover more.
Excited at the idea of getting a heaping dose of royal gossip? Keep reading to discover the wildest King Charles rumors this side of England!
Is the relationship between Charles and Camilla falling apart?
Most people assume that the relationship between King Charles and his wife Camilla is very solid. After all, this is the woman he cheated on Princess Diana with, and he has seemed very devoted ever since marrying Camilla in 2005. However, based on a few eyebrow-raising moments, more than a few people think this marriage is falling apart.
Back in 2010, one insider told The Mirror that those around them had nicknamed Charles and Camilla “The Glums” because they were miserable with one another. Soon after, another insider told the Daily Mail that Charles kept complaining after Camilla fell and fractured her leg. These complaints reportedly included “How inconvenient it was that she was in plaster and had to use a wheelchair because she couldn’t go with him to this and that, and how it was making everything so difficult for him.”
Between this and more recent incidents like Charles urging Camilla to stop chatting with people at Wrexham, many think these two are simply keeping up public appearances when it comes to their marriage.
RELATED: A Timeline of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Relationship
Does Charles have a secret baby?
One of the wildest rumors about King Charles is that he and Camilla had a secret baby when they were teenagers. This rumor gained a bit more traction in 2021 when Queensland native Simon Dorante-Day told 7News Australia that Charles and Camilla were his real parents. According to him, the royal power couple had a baby in their teens and he was raised by Camilla until he turned eight months old and was handed over to Queen Elizabeth’s employee Winifred Bowlden to raise as her own.
It didn’t help matters that Dorante-Day’s birth certificate had some discrepancies and that he bears a strong resemblance to Charles. Plus, the royals tend to avoid commenting on such crazy claims, but the fact that Charles never consented to a paternity test has made others think this child could really be his.
A power struggle between Charles and William?
When Charles passes away, he will be succeeded as King by William, his oldest son. This has always been the way of the Royal Family, but there have been strong rumors that the two are already bickering over the throne while Charles is very much alive. These rumors extend back to December 2023, when an insider told the Daily Beast that William was vying for more decision-making agency and another claimed this would blow up in the prince’s face because Charles is “allergic to anyone telling him what to do, and William is not exactly famed for his subtlety.”
Some felt this rumor was corroborated when another insider told Us Weekly that William thought he might take the throne sooner after Charles was diagnosed with cancer but that Charles had waited for this moment so long that not even a terrible health diagnosis could stop him. This, combined with William’s public statements about how he plans to be a different kind of king, makes people think these two are secretly bickering behind the scenes.
RELATED: The Biggest Royal Rules Prince William Has Ever Broken
Is Charles jealous of William and Kate?
Some of the craziest rumors about King Charles come from fairly official sources such as royal authors. For example, royal guru Katie Nicholl used her 2022 book The New Royals to delve into a rumor that Charles was secretly jealous of Kate Middleton. According to that book, he was specifically jealous that Kate’s keen fashion sense often made more headlines than the actions he took as king.
Interestingly, several insiders have claimed that Charles is also jealous of Prince William. For example, an insider told Us Weekly in 2024 that the king was jealous that William, like Princess Diana before him, was always more popular than he was. And in 2023, The Last Queen author Clive Irving told Express that Charles was so “jealous of other people stealing his limelight” that he ”worked out a deal now, whereby William and Kate can have an allotted percentage of the limelight.”
So jealous, Charles! It seems being king isn’t so easy after all.