Why The Prince Of Wales Is Still My Favorite Royal
I am old enough to remember stuff you guys might only know from watching "The Crown". Like, the times, when Prince Charles was actually a cool guy, with his polo ponies, his mistress and his freewheeling lifestyle. My gay friends adored him as well as my punk musician friends - when he got married to Diana there were farewell-parties for His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, all over Hamburg, where I had just entered university.
Even to marry that harmless unimpressive girl, chosen obviously by his family, seemed reasonable: As long as THEY would not allow him to marry the love of his life - why not go for someone who would out of gratitude and respect never interfer into his way of life?
How wrong you can be. We all know how that story ended, for a moment in time Diana became the strongest player in that royal chess game, her death nearly causing the end of the monarchy as we knew it.
Prince Charles then started a real private life, leaving the limelight to his sons, who kind of invented the next generation Shakespearian conflicts, there will be new "The Crown" seasons for many, many years to come.
The prince of Wales prefers headlines that speak about his ecological interests, may it concern the plannng of our cities or the way he supports sustainable gardening as well as production or education. The estate "Dumfries House" was saved and renovated by the Prince´s Trust to not only becoming a celebrated "Stately Home" but also a place for all kinds of trainee-programms - to teach traditional skills as sewing or producing fabrics, the way Scotland´s taylors and weaving mills used to work for centuries.
And now there is even a fashion collection, sold at "Net-a-porter", combining those technics with Italian flair.
And Prince Charles got featured at "British Vogue" - as the leader of a new movement fighting for clothes he himself made widely popular, as a young man and until today: not to "make, take and throw away" but to be preserved and repaired for years.
And while his late first wife, Lady Di, might forever remain as "Pincess of Hearts" in our universal memory, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, may become the first King of England who actually cares about the future of his people.
What makes him cool today. And for generations to come.
Even if he´d never fit again into those sexy Polo shirts he loved to exchange in public for the benefit of his well trained body as a young man.
