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King Charles III is hours away from a coronation that has been 70 years in the making and after he watched his own mother be crowned as a four-year-old boy.
As Britain's first new head of state since 1952, he inherited a monarchy under pressure over its colonial history and mired in allegations levelled by his own son, Prince Harry.
However, Charles is no stranger to scandal after the very public collapse of his marriage to Princess Diana against the backdrop of his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Now Queen Camilla, she too will be crowned alongside her husband and with her own grandchildren present at Westminster Abbey on May 6.
King Charles' Early Passions
The king is perhaps best known for his passionate advocacy on environmental issues which dates back to 1970 when he took up the cause against plastic pollution long before it was popular.
He told the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales at the time: "When you think that each person produces roughly two pounds of rubbish per day and there are 55 million of us on this island using non-returnable bottles and indestructible plastic containers, it is not difficult to imagine the mountains of refuse that we shall have to deal with somehow."
Fifty years later, in a 2020 speech, he added: "I was considered rather dotty, to say the least, for even suggesting these things, rather like when I set up a reed-bed sewage treatment system at Highgrove all those years ago—that was considered completely mad."
In 1976, Charles founded one of his most successful causes, The Prince's Trust, a charity which helps young people from under privileged backgrounds find work.
By September 2020, the trust stated it had helped more than a million young people and in 2022 Charles made a case for its role in supporting diverse communities while guest editing The Voice, which describes itself as Britain's only black national newspaper.
"It was during those years that The Prince's Trust, which I had started in 1976, launched the Enterprise Programme to give marginalized young people, many of them from Black communities, financial grants to set up their own enterprises and to fulfill their extraordinary potential," he wrote.
"I am pleased to say that since then we have supported the development of many black owned businesses, some of which are featured in this special edition of The Voice."
King Charles and Work
It is perhaps no surprise that his most impactful project has centred on employment as Charles himself has at times been described as a workaholic in the media.
Prince Harry's book Spare also describes Charles' dedication to his job: "Pa had always been a worker. He believed in work. 'Everyone must work,' he often said. But his own work was also a kind of religion, because he was furiously trying to save the planet.
"He'd been fighting for decades to alert people to climate change, never flagging, despite being cruelly mocked by the press as a Henny Penny. Countless times, late at night, Willy and I would find him at his desk amid mountains of bulging blue postbags—his correspondence," Harry wrote.
"More than once we discovered him, face on the desk, fast asleep. We'd shake
his shoulders and up he'd bob, a piece of paper stuck to his forehead."
Prince William described his father's work ethic in a 2018 BBC documentary marking Charles' 70th birthday.
"I would like him to have more time with the children," William said in Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70. "Having more time with him at home would be lovely, and being able to, you know, play around with the grandchildren. When he's there, he's brilliant, but we need him there as much as possible."
Charles' Marriage to Princess Diana
Charles married Princess Diana at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 after they began dating a year earlier and while Charles was under pressure to find love.
Diana would later tell her speech coach they had met just 13 times before rushing into what proved to be an ill-fated commitment.
Charles and Camilla had dated previously, but she was married to her first husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles when he married Diana. Camilla was still a part of his life to the point Diana had nightmares about her even during the honeymoon.
Diana gave birth to William in 1982 and Harry in 1984 and the princess said it was five years before she got confirmation of Charles and Camilla's affair.
They stayed together regardless until their separation in 1992 and divorce in 1996.
Princess Diana Biography Marks a Fall From Grace for Charles
Diana's account of the collapse of the marriage became public through the book Diana: Her True Story, written by Andrew Morton with her secret cooperation and published in 1992.
The media may have mocked Charles over his campaigning for environmental causes before that point but he was still very popular right up until the world learned for the first time about his infidelity.
In 1991, a survey by Ipsos Mori showed 82 percent of Britons felt he would make a good king but by 1996, the year of their divorce, the number had plunged to 41 percent.
Such was the backlash against Charles that some in the Church of England suggested he should not become king.
George Austin, then the Archdeacon of York, told BBC Radio 4's Today program in December 1993: "Charles made solemn vows before God about his marriage, and it seems—if the rumors are true about Camilla—that he began to break them almost immediately. He has broken the trust on one thing, and broken vows to God on one thing. How can he then go into Westminster Abbey and take the coronation vows?"
Austin was known as a traditionalist and his views on Charles were at one point dismissed by then-Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey as "megaphone theology."
Princess Diana's Death
Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while her car was being followed by the paparazzi when William was 15 years old and Harry was just 12. The boys were staying with Charles and the royals at Balmoral at the time and the king told his sons about the tragedy.
In Spare, Harry wrote: "He looked at me in a funny way, a way he'd never looked at me before. With...fear? 'What is it, Pa?' He sat down on the edge of the bed. He put a hand on my knee. 'Darling boy, Mummy's been in a car crash.' I remember thinking: 'Crash...OK. But she's all right? Yes?'
"I vividly remember that thought flashing through my mind. And I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right. And I remember him not doing that," Harry continued. "There was then a shift internally. I began silently pleading with Pa, or God, or both: 'No, no, no.'"
Harry described Charles as someone who was "not quite ready for parenthood" and added: "But single parenthood? Pa was never made for that."
"To be fair, he tried. Evenings, I'd shout downstairs: Going to bed, Pa! He'd always shout back cheerfully: I'll be there shortly, darling boy! True to his word, minutes later he'd be sitting on the edge of my bed. He never forgot that I didn't like the dark, so he'd gently tickle my face until I fell asleep," Harry wrote.
Marriage to Queen Camilla
After Diana's death, Charles introduced Camilla to William and Harry and a relationship that had existed in the shadows came into the light. The brothers, according to Harry's book, accepted her but asked their father not to remarry.
Charles and Camilla did tie the knot, in 2005, but had to jump through hoops the likes of which a royal couple do not ordinarily have to do. Then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams denied them permission for a church wedding, traditionally barred for divorcees with a living former spouse, though the rules had been relaxed.
So, Charles and Camilla had a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, which Queen Elizabeth II did not attend owing to a personal policy that she only went to church weddings.
The queen did, however, attend a blessing in the married couple's honor at St George's Chapel after the legal ceremony and gave a speech.
Camilla's status in the family remained controversial, however, and she did not take on Diana's title, Princess of Wales, traditionally held by the wife of the Prince of Wales.
The palace also pledged at the time that she would not be known as "Queen" when Charles became king, but would instead take the title "Princess Consort."
Camilla's Journey to 'Queen Consort'
Charles did not give up on the question of Camilla's title and after years of campaigning on her behalf won Elizabeth's backing for a reversal of the policy.
As the queen began her Platinum Jubilee year in February 2022, and with her health struggling, she gave a rare statement on the monarchy's future.
"I remain eternally grateful for and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me," Queen Elizabeth said. "And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service."
The Death of Queen Elizabeth II
After 70 years as direct heir, Charles took on the job he was born for at the same time he lost his mother on September 8, 2022.
In his first speech as monarch on September 9, the king said: "Queen Elizabeth's was a life well-lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today."
Jack Royston is the chief royal correspondent at Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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