As King Charles III is battling cancer, he is doing some deep reflection on his life. He is looking at his current situation and pondering the past.
At the age of 75, His Majesty has had two marriages, raised two children, and fought multiple bitter scandals.
According to royal author Ingrid Seward, King Charles has found himself reminiscing and struggling with one particular decision that he took as a parent that changed Prince Harry and Prince William‘s lives forever.
The royal expert claimed that King Charles, if he could, would dramatically change the way he raised his children.
His Majesty wanted to be stricter with Prince William and Prince Harry, and he had plans to have more boundaries in place, but his late wife, Princess Diana, had other plans.
She stated in an interview with Fox News: “Prince Harry and King Charles were very, very close. They got along incredibly well. I think Charles probably regrets that he wasn’t strict with Harry and [his older son] William. He went on with [Princess] Diana’s freestyle of bringing up children. Diana allowed them to do, more or less, what they wanted, which was very fashionable in those days. You let children just get on with things. I think Charles probably regrets that he wasn’t a bit stricter, because it might’ve given both boys a few more boundaries.… Children all need boundaries, and I don’t think they have too many.”
In the ideal world that King Charles has mapped out in his head, being a tougher parent to his children leads to a different outcome.
He believes that Prince Harry and the heir would have had a better relationship. The King also thinks that Prince Harry would not have lashed out as much and created the complex and painful reality that he now lives in.
According to the expert, the error of being a lax father is the reason he is living through these miserable last years.
She said: “I don’t think that the king would worry about Harry living halfway across the world, because it is not that difficult to get from LA to London, as we know. But I think what’s sad for him is that he doesn’t see his grandchildren and that Harry has been such a disruptive force to the whole Royal Family. That doesn’t stop Charles [from] loving him. But I think he’s very upset by Harry’s behavior and especially upset by Harry’s remarks about his wife, about Camilla … Charles just has to be there with open arms. Otherwise, it’s just going to make things much, much worse. And I’m sure he wishes that William and Harry were on better terms, but there’s nothing he can do about it. It’s between them. But he did say, ‘Please boys, don’t make my last years miserable,’ which is exactly what they have done.”
Observers say regrets are probably not enough to fix things in the British royal family.
