Following Queen Elizabeth II's death on September 8, 2022, her son King Charles became monarch. His coronation took place on May 6, 2023, and Charles appears to have embraced his new role with aplomb. However, according to a royal biographer, not everyone in the Royal Family believed Charles would make a "good king." In fact, the identity of Charles's doubter is heartbreaking.
In the book Philip: The Final Portrait, royal author Gyles Brandreth revealed that during a series of meetings with the late Queen's husband, Philip expressed a certain amount of "disdain" for his eldest son Charles (via the Daily Mail). According to Brandreth, there was a "touch of exasperation in his tone—and often, too, a note of sarcasm" whenever the topic of Charles, then the Prince of Wales, came up. "The Duke gave the impression that he would have liked his son to be more robust, less fey," Brandreth wrote.
Following the death of Princess Diana, from whom Charles was divorced, Prince Philip reportedly expressed his belief that his eldest son didn't have the "dedication necessary to make a good king," Brandreth wrote.
Brandreth isn't the first author to suggest that Prince Philip and King Charles had a difficult relationship. In Tim Clayton's 2001 book Diana: Story of a Princess, royal expert Penny Junor explained (via E! News), "Prince Philip is bluff, outspoken, hearty, tough, and something of a bully."
Junor continued, "He has no patience with his eldest son's soul-searching. Sensitivity is not one of the qualities he expects in a man, and although he undoubtedly has great affection for Prince Charles, he has spent a lifetime criticizing him and quietly undermining his self-esteem."
