Prince Charles Was Paranoid That Princess Diana and Prince Andrew Were Plotting to Steal the Throne, Royal Biographer Says
Once upon a time, a British prince married a beautiful woman in a grand wedding with thousands of well-wishers in attendance and millions more watching from afar. But Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage was no fairy tale. Instead, their union was marred by lies and scandals.
The heir apparent, who has been prepping his whole life to be king one day, reportedly became paranoid that Diana was plotting his downfall so he would never see the throne. The prince’s biographer has claimed that it wasn’t just the princess Charles worried about as he was also weary of his brothers, particularly Prince Andrew, wanting to steal the throne from him.
Prince Charles thought Prince Andrew wanted to steal the throne
The Express noted that in 2018, Tom Bower published a biographer about the Duke of Cornwall titled Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles. In it, Bower alleged that Charles was paranoid thinking people close to him were plotting against him in a power play to take the throne.
Bower wrote that in 1996 Charles felt that members of his own family were going to try and use his failed marriage to Diana and affair with Camilla Parker Bowles to try to take him down and steal the crown. Bower explained that Charles was suspicious of his younger brothers, especially Prince Andrew. He believed the Duke of York was feeding the queen and Prince Philip lies about Camilla so they wouldn’t accept her into the family.
The author revealed that Charles even told his assistant private secretary Mark Bolland, “Andrew wanted to be me.” Royal expert Richard Kay backed that claim up and stated, “Andrew was the number two, the queen’s second son, and if anything had happened to Charles it was going to be Andrew who took over.”
Charles also thought Princess Diana was ‘plotting his downfall’
In addition to his brothers, Bower said that Prince Charles feared Princess Diana was plotting against him as well and wanted their eldest son, William, to take the throne instead.
According to Bower, the Prince of Wales “convinced himself” that Diana was plotting with Andrew’s then-estranged wife Sarah, Duchess of York “to replace him as heir by announcing that on the queen’s death or abdication Andrew would be Regent until Prince William was 18 when he would take over.”
Diana did question if Charles was fit to be king
Prince Charles and his brothers have never commented on Bower’s allegations. But we do know that Princess Diana publicly questioned if Charles was fit to be king.
During her explosive Panorama interview in 1995, the Princess of Wales told journalist Martin Bashir that she didn’t know if Charles was really cut out for such a “suffocating” role.
“Being Prince of Wales produces more freedom now, and being king would be a little bit more suffocating,” Diana said. “And because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don’t know whether he could adapt to that.”
