Author Sally Bedell Smith can distinctly remember the first time she met Prince Charles. She was attending a polo match with some friends in England in 1991. One of her friends had a close relationship with the princeās grandmother, the Queen Mother, and the future king came over to greet her.
āHe ran up to her and kissed her,ā Bedell Smith recalled to CTVās Your Morning on Monday. āHe was so warm to her and informal and casual. I thought, āThis is not the buttoned-up old fogey that is his prevailing image.āā
The unexpected encounter with the Prince of Wales piqued Bedell Smithās curiosity about the true nature of the heir to the throne. After writing books about the lives of Charlesā former wife Princess Diana and his mother Queen Elizabeth II, the royal-watcher has revisited those lingering questions about the future king in her newest book ā āPrince Charles: The Passions and Paradox of an Improbable Life.ā
āThe charitable entrepreneurā
Bedell Smith spent approximately four years researching and conducting interviews with more than 300 sources familiar with Prince Charles for the biography.
From his seemingly endless charitable endeavours to his concern for the effects of climate change to his yearning for spiritual enlightenment, the author said she was amazed to learn about the princeās diverse range of interests.
āThe big surprise to me was the amazing legacy he will leave as Prince of Wales, the role he created for himself along the way,ā she told Ā鶹“«Ć½ Channel. āPrince Charles has made a real impact.ā
The biographer said the most difficult part about the project was lacing together the different sides to the princeās personality and his varied pursuits.
āThat was the challenge,ā Bedell Smith said. āGetting my arms around this sprawling life and tracing the threads of his thinking.ā
A life overshadowed:
Since he was three years old, Prince Charles has been waiting in the wings to become King. As Queen Elizabeth II celebrated becoming the worldās longest reigning monarch in September 2015, the Prince of Wales became the longest-waiting heir to the throne in the history of the British monarchy, Bedell Smith said.
Because of his lengthy wait on the sidelines, Bedell Smith said Prince Charles public persona has often been dwarfed by those around him.
āI think that has been the fundamental dilemma of his life,ā she explained. āHe was overshadowed by Diana. Heās overshadowed by this much-beloved mother of his and now these sons who have captured the public imagination and are doing very good work.ā
Bedell Smith described the future king as āsensitiveā and āvulnerableā as a child. She said he was brought up in ātough wayā by his father, Prince Philip, and that he wasnāt a dominant āalpha-maleā like his father was.
āThere was a quote from Winston Churchill who met him when he was four years old and he said, āHeās a little boy who thinks too much,āā Bedell Smith recalled.
Prince Charlesā romantic life
Bedell Smith delved into the Prince of Walesā romantic relationships in her research and said she was surprised to discover that he had such a long history with his current wife Camilla Parker Bowles. She said the prince fell in love with the Duchess of Cornwall from almost the first moment he met her in 1972 at a friendās apartment.
Throughout Prince Charlesā highly-publicized and tumultuous marriage to Princess Diana, Bedell Smith said the Duchess of Cornwall had always been the princeās love.
āThey had a romance before he met Diana and then five years after he was married to Diana he resumed with Camilla when he said on television the marriage had irretrievably broken down,ā she noted.
Bedell Smith Prince Charles and Princess Dianaās marriage fell apart because the couple hardly knew each other when he proposed, there was a large age difference between them and the princess had some emotional issues that the prince was ill-equipped to handle.
āDiana came along and she looked good on paper. She was from a grand aristocratic family. She was sweet, she was wonderful with children, she was beautiful and he thought he could fall in love with her,ā she said.
Despite the negative publicity the Prince of Wales received in the wake of his failed marriage and her death in 1997, Bedell Smith said the portrayal of him being cold and unfeeling is inaccurate.
āHe just has this wonderfully wide range and heās so earnest and he cares so much,ā she said.
