To commemorate his 70th birthday, Country Life asked Prince Charles to guest edit their November issue and my oh my, were they in for a treat. While he spoke at length about important issues like the destruction of wildlife and need for conservation, something Prince William is also passionate about, he also revealed a ton of hilarious anecdotes about his personal life that give us unprecedented insight into the psyche of our future King. Here, we detail the wildest revelations that came from the issue…
He invented Groussaka
Yes, you read that right, Groussaka. According to Country Life, his love of grouse is so strong that he replaces many traditional meat-based dishes with Grouse, including Coq au vin and most notably, moussaka. The Greek dish is traditionally made with lamb, however in the grand tradition of butchering other countries national dishes, he likes to replace it with his favourite bird.
‘I invented a grouse [recipe] recently, coq au vin with grouse, as well as moussaka with grouse. It doesn't always have to be lamb - in other words, groussaka!’
He lets squirrels run around his home
His love of wildlife runs so deep that the future King says he lets red squirrels run free in his home on the Queen’s Balmoral estate. ‘They come into the house at Birkhall and we get them chasing each other round and round inside,’ he wrote, ‘If I sit there quietly, they will do so around me. Sometimes, when I leave my jackets on a chair with nuts in the pockets, I see them with their tails sticking out, as they hunt for nuts - they are incredibly special creatures.’
As a patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, his obsession with the animals is so strong that even Prince William commented on it, saying that his father is ‘completely infatuated’ with the squirrels and has even given some of them names. Essentially, Prince Charles lives in a Disney Princess film.
He loves eating birds so much he even puts them in his desserts
For someone so concerned about the destruction of wildlife, he sure does love replacing your average non-meat dish with extravagant birds. The Prince revealed that another of his favourite dishes is Pheasant Crumble Pie, a dish he claims he invented. ‘I got this recipe from someone I know. It is delicious,’ he said, truly putting our apple crumble penchant to shame.
He doesn’t eat lunch
That’s right, the Prince is apparently a fan of intermittent fasting as he also revealed he doesn’t eat lunch, and apparently often avoids dinner. While this may be surprising to the average human who needs lunch even just for the 60-minute escape from work, it’s not really for a royal. Eating food at lunchtime was popularised because industrialisation meant people were working long hours and midday food became a necessity. For the royal family, we can’t imagine this was ever really a necessary change…
He’s actually quite thrifty
You may expect Royals to switch up their outfit for every occasion, but as Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have proven, this is not always the case. And apparently, it’s a habit loved by Prince Charles too, whose tailor keeps scrap material from every suit he has ever commissioned just in case it needs mending later.
Anderson & Sheppard, who have supplied the Prince’s suits for over thirty years, are believed to have kept every material necessary to fix up his suits, including those for the suit he wore to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex