Why King Charles’ spoke devastating two words to staff immediately after late Queen died

At the same moment that King Charles lost his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, he also took on the role of monarch, which he had been preparing for his whole life. As the longest-serving Prince of Wales, Charles had spent decades watching and learning from his mother, getting ready for when the time would come when he would assume the throne, but the reality of becoming King would always be tinged with devastating loss.

In the immediate aftermath of losing his mother, a royal author has claimed, the confusion of having to take up the mantle and lead, whilst dealing with his own grief was clear in a two-word reaction the new monarch had when speaking to a member of staff for the royal household.

The expert, Robert Hardman – an author and royal expert – revealed the quietly devastating moment in his new book Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story, which was serialised in the Daily Mail ahead of its publication. The newspaper reports that when Charles learned that his mother had died, he had known that the former monarch was approaching the end, but had “believed the Queen still had days, not hours, to live”.

He had encouraged both of his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, to travel to Balmoral to see their grandmother, thinking that there would be time to say their goodbyes to her, but the late Queen quickly deteriorated. The new King Charles then had to make a couple of difficult phone calls to inform his sons that she had passed away, and when he was trying to get through to William, one particular moment occurred that showed the conflict inherent in his new role and duties as monarch at a time of personal devastation.

“When Charles called William via the palace switchboard to break the news to him he was forced to tell the operator simply ‘it’s me’ as he suddenly realised he couldn’t reveal that he was king, yet,” it was claimed in the expert’s book, showing the complicated nature of the line of succession itself.

Charles also endeavoured to get hold of his youngest son Prince Harry, but wasn’t able to because the Duke of Sussex was flying at the time, and Harry has claimed that he found out the news from the BBC website. In his memoir Spare, Harry revealed that as his plane began to land his phone was suddenly filled with notifications and after checking the news, he realised “Granny was gone. Pa was King.”