King Charles wants to avoid his grandchildren making the same mistakes he did, expert says

He wants them to 'have the confidence to marry whom they want'

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh stand on the balcony during the Trooping the Colour, this year marking the Queen's 90th birthday at The Mall on June 11, 2016 in London, England. The ceremony is Queen Elizabeth II's annual birthday parade and dates back to the time of Charles II in the 17th Century when the Colours of a regiment were used as a rallying point in battle
(Image credit: Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie / Getty)

King Charles is clearly very fond of his grandchildren — as evidenced by his inclusion of Prince George, 9, as one of his Pages of Honour at his recent Coronation.

The King is also grandfather to Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, on the Wales' side, and to Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, almost 2, on the Sussex's side.

While Charles doesn't get to see Archie and Lilibet very often because of his difficult relationship with their parents, who now live in California, he has been said to be "very saddened" by the physical distance between him and his youngest grandchildren.

As a doting grandpa, it's more than likely that King Charles wants all of his grandchildren to have as easy a life as possible — and to avoid some of the hardships that he endured over the course of his own life.

"I think King Charles is very keen that his grandchildren don't make the mistakes that I think he feels he made, particularly when it came to matters of the heart," claimed Chandrika Kaul, a professor of modern history at St Andrews University, as part of the Channel 5 documentary The Fab Five: The King's Grandchildren (via the Mirror).

"What I think he wants to do is try and help these young grandchildren grow up in as normal a way as possible and create more fully rounded human beings who are unafraid of their emotions and who are able to have the confidence to marry whom they want.

"And to have a happy, successful and fulfilled personal life."

Professor Kaul's comments are presumably referencing the King's difficult first marriage to the late Princess Diana.

While we may never know the exact truth of what happened there, that marriage has been called "essentially arranged," and many royal fans believe that Charles was forced to marry Diana to some degree.

It's also well known that Charles and his now-wife Camilla went out before they each got married, then had an ongoing affair with each other after they married other people — the theory being that perhaps Charles wanted to marry Camilla all along.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.