The Gist
Before becoming monarch in 2022, King Charles was prone to so-called “Eeyore moments”—but his demeanor has shifted since becoming king nearly four years ago.
One royal biographer, Robert Hardman, said that the king is “as happy as I’ve ever seen him.”
Another, Gyles Brandreth, said that while in the past Charles sometimes “seemed to walk about with an invisible rain cloud hovering over his head,” that’s no longer the case.
Before taking the throne in 2022 at age 73, King Charles was the most well-prepared monarch in history. Now, at 77, a royal biographer said that the monarch has a new energy about him.
King Charles on April 8, 2025.
Credit: Getty
In his book about Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, called Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, Gyles Brandreth called the king “a good man with a good heart” who has proven himself to be a “fine king” (per Marie Claire). While Charles certainly seems to be in good spirits now, “Sometimes in the past,” Brandreth wrote, “he seemed to walk about with an invisible rain cloud hovering over his head.”
Since taking the throne, Charles has changed, according to Brandreth, who has been close to the royal family for decades. “Not so now,” he continued of Charles’s disposition.
“He is equal to this moment, and you can see it straight away—in his bearing, in his tone of voice, his turn of phrase,” Brandreth wrote.
King Charles and Queen Camilla in Virginia on April 30, 2026.
Credit: Getty
Fellow royal biographer Robert Hardman agreed, adding that while it can feel “quite lonely at the top,” Charles seems to feel “a genuine sort of purpose and an energy” now that he has taken the throne.
“I think he really enjoys being the king,” Hardman told Marie Claire. “He is, I would say, as happy as I’ve ever seen him.”
“Despite everything that’s going on, despite the cancer diagnosis, despite the estrangement from his son [Prince Harry], despite the fact that the country is in a dreadful state and the whole world’s falling apart,” Hardman added, “he’s a happy monarch.”
Queen Camilla and King Charles on March 24, 2026
Credit: Getty
As Prince of Wales, “There isn’t a previous Prince of Wales who has done what this one has done,” a palace insider told People in 2022, as he took the throne. “Not to the scale and consistency over time and with the courage with which he has done them, while trying to stay within the guardrails of the institution.”
Indeed, much has happened—and not all of it great—since Charles became king nearly four years ago. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2024, the treatment for which continues still today. Almost in tandem, his daughter Kate Middleton was also diagnosed with cancer, but she shared in January 2025 that she is in remission. Strain continues with Harry, and Charles’s brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, constantly embroiled in scandal in recent years, was arrested at his new home on the Sandringham estate on his 66th birthday in February.
“Charles was the best-prepared monarch in history,” royal historian Catherine Mayer told People. “But he will be seen as one of the unluckiest.”
King Charles on February 19, 2026
Credit: Getty
Charles and wife Queen Camilla just wrapped a successful state visit to the U.S. in late April; Charles then continued on for a solo visit to Bermuda. “This is a man who is absolutely driven by duty,” a senior palace aide involved in the trip told Hello!. “Driven by service.”
“He’s not a man to dwell long on what some may consider yesterday’s successes—he is always looking towards tomorrow’s opportunities, so generally we’ve tried to encourage him to feel positive, and he has, about the way that the American leg has gone in particular,” the aide continued. “But his mind is already on what he can achieve next rather than what he achieved this week.”
Hardman told Marie Claire that the king has “never been shy of work,” adding that the monarch is “quite happy staying up all night” at his desk and “being handed extra bundles of work.”
King Charles and Queen Camilla in Washington, D.C. on April 28, 2026.
Credit: Getty
Camilla, for her part, “is a huge support” for Charles, a royal insider told Peoplein 2022, adding before he took the throne that September that Charles could be prone to “Eeyore moments” but that his wife “jollies him up.”
Though recent years have been difficult for the king and the royal family, they “are not going to be the downfall,” Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson told People in April. “They’re survivors. The monarchy has weathered far worse.”
Read the original article on InStyle