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

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.