It’s amazing how much difference 30 years makes.
In less than a week, King Charles will interrupt his cancer treatment to make the long trip to Australia and Samoa, proof that, if ever necessary, he wants to get on with his business as monarch.
He loves Australia. He spent six months at school here, where he revealed he ‘knocked the Pommy bits off me’. But as officials here ripen avocados to suit the king’s taste at lunch, it is fascinating to think back to a similar visit he made in 1994.
It was a remarkable tour for the then Prince of Wales and not just because a student fired two shots at him from a pistol as he prepared to present awards to schoolchildren in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
He was unharmed and seemingly undisturbed, with a video from the time showing him twirling his cufflinks.
Prince Charles loves Australia and even attended Geelong Grammar School in Victoria in 1966
During the 1994 tour, a student fired two shots at Charles with a handgun as he prepared to present awards to schoolchildren in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
The then-prince agreed to an interview with A Current Affair’s Ray Martin to say the tour ‘wasn’t a holiday’
Charles steps off the plane to continue his tour of Australia and New Zealand
He appeared agitated at points during the tour, including a visit to Brisbane
On the contrary, a lengthy television interview during that same visit shows that the 45-year-old Prince is as irritable and self-pitying as Prince Harry is now.
Speaking to veteran Australian broadcaster Ray Martin, the Prince of Wales is despondent, feisty, disenchanted with being a royal and so contemptuous of the media that if you close your eyes you could be listening to his youngest son.
A royal tour, he tells Martin, is not a “vacation” and even if he had wanted to enjoy more time in the Outback, he was not in charge of the route. As for the prospect of Australia becoming a republic, which would eventually lead to the 1999 referendum in which the vote was split almost 55 to 45 percent in favor of the country remaining a constitutional monarchy, the prince grumpily replied that his family did not. owns the place’. As he snapped, “It’s not like we’re making any money from it.”
But like Harry, who is still embroiled in a war with the press, it is the media that the recently divorced Prince had no time for thirty years ago. Asked whether the royal tour, which also visited New Zealand, was a PR exercise, Charles fumed that the media “nine times out of 10 have written the agenda before you go anywhere.” They had also, he claimed, created “a soap opera that has very little connection with reality.”
While time would show that the press had a very accurate view of reality, it is fascinating how much happier he is now. The 1990s were a terrible decade for the heir to the throne, with the publication of Diana, Her True Story in 1992, the royal couple’s divorce later that year and the intercepted ‘tampongate’ phone call between Charles and Camilla that was first reported in January Australia was published. 1993 before being followed up by British tabloids later that month. When he visited Australia a year later, it is understandable why he was so irritated and miserable.
Comparing that despondent man to the one we see now is instructive, not only because it measures the changes in the King’s life, but also suggests how Prince Harry’s life might evolve.
An unhappy-looking Prince Harry with photographers during his 2019 tour of South Africa
Harry at a rugby event at Buckingham Palace in 2020 before leaving Britain with his family
The prince sat down with Anderson Cooper and spoke last year during an interview on American TV about his childhood, the loss of his mother and the break with the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex explained the criticism of his father and his decision to leave the UK with his wife Meghan to Tom Bradby during another TV interview to announce his new book.
The prince, who was interviewed in front of a large vase of carnations and gladiolus, could not have imagined that thirty years later he would visit Camilla, his then lover, as his wife and queen.
As the King extends his four core values – climate, community, culture and Commonwealth – to include cancer, this will be the first time we see him meet medical experts whose work is directly linked to his own health. He will meet Professor Georgina Long AO and Professor Richard Scolyer AO, named Australians of the Year for their pioneering research into the treatment of melanoma. Scolyer, who is on his own cancer journey, is expected to inspire the King with his story, which includes regular updates on Instagram. The Queen, meanwhile, will take part in a panel on domestic violence and promote her interest in childhood literacy by meeting children taking part in a Commonwealth reading challenge.
While Australians would love nothing more than to see the King enjoy a repeat of his dip at Bondi Beach during a previous visit in 1977, there is goodwill towards the couple after the royal family’s cancer-stricken year.
Likewise, observing the changes in Charles’ life between this visit and 1994 illustrates that the royal family is playing a long game. Perhaps such a graphic comparison also offers hope that Harry and William will eventually reconcile.