The Prince of Wales has been facing renewed backlash in recent months. A surprising YouGov poll found that 40 percent of the public now want the crown to skip Charles, and for the Queen to pass sovereignty to her grandson, Prince William. While this is incredibly unlikely to happen as it would disrupt the hereditary nature of the monarchy, only 32 percent of the public backed Charles.
This upsetting news could be down to the portrayal of the heir in the popular Netflix drama, The Crown.
Its latest season was released in November and depicted Charles as cold and aloof towards his late Princess Diana, who remains a much-beloved icon even today.
Charles and his current wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, even had to turn off comments on their shared social media account, @ClarenceHouse, to avoid abuse from irate royal fans who took the fictionalised series as gospel.
However, this is not the first time the Prince of Wales has won back the public affection.
As royal biographer and an acquaintance to Charles, Howard Hodgson, told Express.co.uk, the heir has managed to change his image before.
He explained: “When Charles started going on about the environment and the dangers to the environment in the Seventies and early Eighties’ he was described as the ‘potty prince’, who was always busy talking to the flowers and away with the fairies.
“He was avuncular, bit old for his age, likes roaming around Scotland — and the situation [with the environment] was not taken very seriously at all.
“Then, slowly but surely, people became aware of climate change.”
He then pointed to the production of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, a 2006 documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s attempts to educate the public about global warming.
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Perhaps, this same tactic could be used to help the Prince of Wales restore his image again now.
Mr Hodgson did note that Charles has never had Diana’s excellent media manipulation skills, but that he has patiently waited to be seen in a different light by the public.
Just as he never addressed the accusations that he was a “potty prince” in the years before action on climate change became fashionable, Charles has refrained from tackling the criticism he received from The Crown’s latest season.
He reportedly refuses to ever speak out about his relationship with Diana because he is conscious that, although their marriage was disastrous, she is still the beloved mother to his two sons.
However, it is worth noting that climate change has become a core topic in recent years, having been on the sidelines for decades.
Charles’ relationship with Diana, on the other hand, hit headlines throughout their marriage.
It did fade into the background and Charles’ reputation rose, but The Crown risks pulling the Royal Family back to the unpopularity it faced in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death.
