King Charles, known for his affectionate grandfatherly nature, was reportedly filled with worry when Prince William and Princess Kate announced they were expecting their first child.
In a revealing new book by former Royal correspondent Valentine Row, it’s claimed that the King, who was then the Prince of Wales, was anxious about whether the baby would be a boy or a girl.
The book, titled Power and the Palace, suggests Charles was apprehensive about the future of the monarchy if William, the heir to the throne, had a daughter as his firstborn.
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Row writes that Charles’ numerous concerns began to irritate Richard Heaton, the former Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office, as he expressed his worries to the MP.
Heaton’s frustrations started when he was invited to Clarence House in 2012 to discuss Charles’ charities and their government connections, but the Royal ended up questioning him about the Succession to the Crown Bill, reports the Mirror.
The book reveals that Charles wanted to understand what would happen if William’s first child was a girl, particularly in light of the planned Succession to the Crown Bill. His main worry was whether the Royal house name of Windsor could be altered if a granddaughter who became monarch married and took her husband’s name.
According to Hello! Charles posed a hypothetical question, asking if the Royal house would remain the House of Windsor or could it become the House of Smith, should she marry someone with that surname.
The explosive book also claimed that Charles harboured concerns about the future of the monarchy if William’s first child was a daughter who might one day be Queen and married a Catholic, given the monarch’s role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
However, Charles’ alleged worries were swiftly put to rest when William and Kate welcomed their first child, Prince George, in 2013.
They then introduced their first and only daughter, Princess Charlotte, to the world in 2015, followed by their second son and youngest child, Prince Louis, in 2018.
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