King Charles III is described as a sensitive, spiritual, sometimes melancholic character, with a strong social conscience.
According to his wife the Queen, he is a workaholic who is “not one for chilling”.
The Duke of Sussex once recalled how his father would sometimes fall asleep at his desk working late into the night, and wake up with a piece of paper stuck to his face.
Camilla said in a BBC documentary in 2018: “He’s a very exceptional man. They see him as a very serious person, which he is.
“But I would like a lot of people to see the lighter side of him.”
At each official tree planting, he carries out his ritual of touching the trunk for luck and declaring “Good luck tree”.
He retired from playing polo in 2005 after 40 years.
The King does not eat lunch – and his favourite tea is Darjeeling with honey and milk.
Charles made cameo appearances in Coronation Street in 2000, The Beano comic in 2013, and EastEnders in 2022.
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was born at Buckingham Palace on November 14 1948 at 9.14pm, weighing 7lbs 6oz – a first child for Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, and the Duke of Edinburgh.
His birth was the first time in centuries when there was no government minister present to witness the arrival of a future heir to the throne.
He was created Prince of Wales by the late Queen in July 1958, when he was nine years old, but his investiture at Caernarfon Castle, televised and watched by 19 million people, took place when he was 20.
Charles is twice married. He divorced his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales in 1996, and she died in a shock car crash the following year.
The King, who acceded to the throne on September 8 2022, is the 41st reigning monarch since William the Conqueror took control in 1066.
Charles was crowned with the golden bejewelled St Edward’s Crown, which was lowered onto his head by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey on May 6.
