After a lifetime in the public eye, he is a familiar figure to many in Britain and around the world. But no one yet knows what kind of monarch King Charles III — the title he took, ending years of speculation — will become. As CNN’s royal correspondent, I’ve covered Britain’s new king for many years and traveled the world with him. One of the best insights I had was when I was invited with a group of other journalists to Dumfries House, his stately home near Glasgow in Scotland, in 2018 ahead of his 70th birthday. I spent two days there and was given unusual access to Charles and many of those closest to him. I was treated to tours of the estate, high tea, dinners and a spectacular bagpipe performance by a fireplace.
This is the place that brings it all together for the new king, all of his greatest passions and causes — from music to protecting rare breeds, apprenticeships for disadvantaged youth and organic farming. The whole estate is buzzing with activity and I could see how excited he was to walk around and ask questions of his staff.
Every Friday night, wherever he is in the world, Charles is sent a heavy report informing him of the work of the estate and returns it to them on Saturday morning with notes. His wife Camilla will tell you that she stays up late every night reading, writing and responding to requests for support and advice.
Where many of his predecessors saw the role of Prince of Wales as a ticket to a playboy lifestyle and a guaranteed income, Charles has professionalized it and made it his own. He wanted an inheritance, but he didn’t want to wait until he was king. In my experience, he is impatient and driven, and gets incredibly frustrated if one of his projects doesn’t work or doesn’t pay off.
“The signs were there from young adulthood,” Kenneth Dunsmuir told me during the visit to Dumfries House. Dunsmuir runs The Prince’s Foundation, an educational charity set up by Charles to help teach traditional arts and skills. “His concerns about social issues in the community and ecological issues were all there, and all that’s happened is that he’s gotten more involved and had the time to do it.”
Dunsmuir’s comment points to the other reason Charles achieved so much during his tenure: he was the longest-serving Prince of Wales ever because of the longevity of his mother’s reign. Dunsmuir thinks of Dumfries House, he said, as “a fantastic physical legacy to this project that will always be here and always remain”.
Charles has often struggled to contain his passion for his job, voicing his hopes and fears during speeches over the years and often sounding more like an activist than a constitutional monarch-in-waiting. This prompted accusations that it threatened the independence and impartiality of the monarchy. Take climate change, which he has been speaking out about since 1968. Since then it has become a mainstream issue and, for some, a political one. Charles was a prominent supporter of the 2015 Paris climate accord and discussed the issue with Donald Trump over tea in December 2019 as the then-president prepared to withdraw the United States from the agreement. The following month, at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Charles gave a powerful speech, asking: “Do we want to go down in history as the people who did nothing to bring the world back from the brink in time to recover? the balance when we could do? I do not want”. I sat down with Charles for an interview that day and he insisted that the Paris Agreement was still possible. “We can’t go on like this, with another temperature record being broken every month. If we let it go too long, and we have, it’s just going to be difficult for things to grow,” he said.
Despite criticism – and sometimes ridicule – for his struggle to become the royals’ eco-warrior, Charles has continued to be a pioneer on green issues in recent years.
Charles was in his element at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow in November 2021, where he pleaded with countries to work with industry to create solutions to climate change. “We know this is going to take trillions, not billions, of dollars,” he said at the time. Climate change and biodiversity loss are a major threat and the world must go to “war” to combat them, he added. US President Joe Biden commented on Charles’ decades of efforts at the event, paying him the ultimate compliment saying he had “taken it all forward” and “this is how it all started”. Charles has been outspoken on a whole range of touchy subjects, from genetically modified crops to homeopathic medicines and architecture. It made him a more divisive figure than his mother, who barely cracked an expression during her reign, let alone voiced an opinion. Elizabeth’s legendary ability to not offend and alienate was more strategic than many realise, but Charles has always insisted he intends to follow her lead and stop meddling when he takes the throne.
In 2018, Charles told the BBC: “The idea, somehow, that I’m going to carry on in exactly the same way if I have to, is completely nonsense because both — the two situations — are completely different. ” When asked specifically if his campaign would continue, he said: “No, it won’t. I’m not that stupid.”
In all the conversations I’ve had with family members and their aides, there has never been any talk of the more popular Prince William leapfrogging his father to the throne.
Charles has spent his entire life preparing to be dominant and has proven beyond doubt that he is not shy. William has never been in a rush to take the crown in the meantime, preferring to steadily build his royal portfolio while focusing on his young family and developing his own set of interests and causes.
Charles and William came together personally and professionally when Prince Harry stepped down from royal duties in 2020, leaving the rest of the senior royals a much more cohesive group. The relationship between the new King and his successor will now be key to the future stability of the monarchy, as will the dynamic between the new King and his wife.
I have seen what a tower of support Camilla has always been for Charles. I’ve seen how hesitant and frustrated he can become when faced with an obstacle in his work, and he has a unique talent for dispelling any tension with a sense of humor and charisma that you don’t find on camera.
In 2015 I sat down with Charles at another of his Scottish homes — Birkhall, in the Highlands. It was to mark the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary ahead of a US tour.
He told me, “It’s always wonderful to have someone who, you know, you feel understands and wants to encourage them. Although they definitely make fun of me if I get too serious about things. And it all helps.”
After the interview, I went with him to a living room where Camila and I were together as we waited for the cameras to be set up for some set shots. Camila would ask how it went and joke about our clothes and he was instantly more relaxed in her company. Her ability to stabilize a room has now become a national asset, as the wife of the country’s head of state — and a symbol of stability. With Camilla standing firmly by his side, Charles will now put his stamp on the monarchy. After decades of waiting, he is not only the head of state for the United Kingdom but also for 14 other nations, including Canada and Australia. The eyes of the world are upon him as he assumes the mantle of King. To get updates about the British Royal Family delivered to your inbox, sign up for CNN’s Royal News newsletter.