The former Archbishop of Canterbury, who was ‘thrown to help’ with the wedding of King Charles and Princess Diana, has suggested they would never be ‘successful’ in a new royal docuseries.
George Carey, who served as the top cleric from 1991 to 2002, tells ITVX’s The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor how he was brought in to try and salvage the couple’s turbulent relationship.
He says: ‘I was when the Archbishop of Canterbury was involved. I remember meeting at number 10 Downing Street with [former Prime Minister] John Major and some members of the cabinet are struggling with what we can do to help.”
“The role I took on was to try and meet,” adds Lord Carey, who claims the “dynamic between” Charles and Diana, then the Prince and Princess of Wales, “would not be successful.”
He continues: ‘Charles deep thinking, a slower personality, reflective. Diana, dynamic, lively, less driven, it wasn’t going to work.’
The former Archbishop of Canterbury who was ‘thrown to help’ in the wedding of King Charles and Princess Diana (pictured in South Korea in 1992) has suggested they would never be ‘successful’ in a new royal docuseries
For centuries, the Archbishops of Canterbury have been tasked with helping members of the Royal Family resolve some of the most vexing issues of the day.
Perhaps most famously, Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer wrestled with the king’s demand to divorce Anne Boleyn. Cranmer succeeded.
More recently, his modern-day successor, Justin Welby, was asked by King Charles to make a deal for Prince Harry to attend his coronation – but was met with opposition from Prince William, The Mail on Sunday revealed.
Charles wanted Welby to strike an agreement with his feuding sons that would allow Harry and his wife Meghan to attend the Westminster Abbey ceremony in May, senior sources close to Lambeth Palace say.
Last week, it was confirmed that Prince Harry will attend the coronation alone, while his wife Meghan Markle, 41, will remain in California with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, one.
At the coronation, which is only three weeks away, both King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be crowned in front of 2,000 people at Westminster Abbey.
George Carey (pictured), who served as the top cleric from 1991 to 2002, tells ITVX’s The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor how he was brought in to try and salvage the couple’s turbulent relationship
Elsewhere in the ITVX programme, the Queen is said to have wanted Prince Andrew to fight in the Falklands War as she believed it was his duty to do so while he was a member of the British Armed Forces – but his brother Charles ‘wasn’t allowed’.
In the series, General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British army, talks about how Elizabeth II was keen for the Duke of York, now 63, to take part in the 1982 South Atlantic conflict.
Sir Mike, then a lieutenant colonel involved in defense intelligence during the Falkland campaign, said in the third episode: “The Queen would consider that a member of her family who had joined the armed forces … they have to do their duty. ‘
But after Andrew’s victorious return from the ten-week conflict, King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, was “again left a bit in the shadows,” according to Lady Anne Glenconner, the late Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting.
She tells the documentary that Charles was “not allowed to go to war because it would have been too dangerous” – a decision similar to that of the late Her Majesty regarding Princes Harry and William.
The Queen wanted both William and Harry to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan when war broke out in 2001 before deciding it was too risky to send the future heir to the throne, Sir Mike revealed in a later episode of the docuseries .
Elsewhere on the ITVX programme, the Queen is said to have wanted Prince Andrew to fight in the Falklands War as she believed it was his duty to do so while he was a member of the British Armed Forces – but his brother Charles ‘wasn’t allowed’. has unveiled a new docuseries. Pictured, Charles and Andrew in 2012
The decision whether the princes would take part in the conflict was discussed at a meeting between the late Elizabeth II and Sir Mike, then head of the British army.
In the forthcoming documentary, which airs April 20, Sir Mike breaks protocol by revealing details of his private audience with the Queen.
He said, “What happens in those audiences, and who says what to whom, remains for the two persons involved, and I will break the rule of not disclosing what happens on this one occasion.
‘She was very clear. She said, “My grandsons have taken my shillings, so they must do their duty”. And that was that. But it was decided that William as an heir for the heir the risk is too great. But for his younger brother, the risk was acceptable.’
Harry served in the military for ten years, rising to the rank of captain and making two operational tours of duty in Afghanistan, in 2007-8 and 2012-13.
The documentary shows that William was stopped from joining the war, despite wanting to, because of his position as future king.
Likewise, the Queen allowed her second eldest son, Andrew, to take part in active service in a war, with Sir Mike explaining: ‘A member of the Royal Family killed in military action will have significant political consequences.
Queen Elizabeth II gives Prince Andrew a rose which he promptly pops into his mouth after they disembark HMS Invincible after returning from the Falklands War on 17 September 1982 in Portsmouth
“But the Queen would feel that a member of her family who had joined the armed forces had entered into the same contract as other sailors, soldiers and airmen and that they should do their duty.”
Andrew joined the Royal Navy in 1979 and served for 22 years, including the Falklands War in 1982, during which time he served aboard HMS Invincible as a Sea King helicopter pilot.
Charles, who did not serve in active war, was left “somewhat in the shadows” after his younger brother’s success in the Falklands, according to Lady Anne Glenconner.
She said, “It must be very irritating for Charles, who had been in the Navy, not to go to war because it would have been too dangerous.
“There’s Prince Andrew, had a great war, came back a hero with a rose in his teeth, looked terrifyingly handsome, everyone loved it, and poor Charles again, kind of in the shadows.”
According to royal biographer Gyles Brandreth, Charles “regrets” not being “action-tested,” reported The express.
In his book Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair (2005), Mr Brandreth wrote: ‘He [Charles] well done. His men liked him and in all probability respected his modesty, seriousness and determination.
A few years later, at the time of the Falklands conflict in 1982, Charles expressed regret that during his own service career he had not been “tested in action” as his younger brother, Andrew, was when he served in the Fleet Air Arm in the South Atlantic.”
Charles began his military service on the destroyer HMS Norfolk in 1971.
He then served on two frigates: HMS Minerva from 1972 to 1974 and HMS Jupiter in 1974. His service ended in 1976, but he remained an occasional pilot.
He finally retired from flying after he crashed a £10 million BAE 146 aircraft on Islay in the Inner Hebrides in 1994.
Charles was not banned from flying after the accident, which St James’s Palace said at the time was a ‘personal decision made by the Prince himself’.
The full The Real Crown: Inside The House Of Windsor series is available on Thursday 20 April on ITVX