According to Prince William, Charles loves the little furry animals so much that he even leaves treats in his jacket pockets for them. “He is completely infatuated by the red squirrels that live around the [Birkhall] estate in Scotland — to the extent that he’s given them names and is allowing them into the house,” he tells Country Life. 

As a Patron of the Wildlife Trusts in the UK, he’s also a big advocate for the endangered creatures, helping to build a safe enclosure in the Dumfries House woodlands earlier this year.  Back in 2014, Prince Charles visited the Glendelvine Squirrel Sanctuary in Scotland and is also patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. 

According to the future King’s wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, her husband is fantastic with their grandchildren and notes the beautiful things he does with them.

“He reads Harry Potter and he can do all the different voices and I think children really appreciate that,” she reveals. “He will get down on his knees and crawl about with them for hours, you know, making funny noises and laughing, and my grandchildren adore him, absolutely adore him.”

Prince Charles also restored an old treehouse for Prince George and Princess Charlotte, which was first built for his two sons, Princes William and Harry, in 1989. 

Please let us take a moment to collectively go “awwww”.

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Before Diana came on the scene, the Prince dated her oldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, for nine months in 1977 but their short-lived PG fling came to a halt after Sarah gave an embarrassing interview about the Prince.

“Our relationship is totally platonic. I think of him as the big brother I never had. I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love, whether it was a dustman or the King of England,” she told two journalists. “If he asked me I would turn him down,” she added.

To make matters even juicier, Charles reportedly said: “You have just done something incredibly stupid,” after reading her comments.

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When Charlie was just 14, he and his classmates were taken to a village pub where the prince ordered a cherry brandy.

“I said the first drink that came into my head because I’d drunk it before, when it was cold, out shooting,” Prince Charles said, according to Vanity Fair.

But unluckily for the heir to the throne, there was a tabloid reporter at the pub who caught the whole thing. Even though Buckingham Palace denied the reports at first, it was soon splashed across the papers and the truth came out.

Charles’ royal bodyguard and father-figure Don Green was swiftly fired with the prince saying later that “I have never been able to forgive them for doing that… I thought it was the end of the world.”

You may have caught a glimpse of this in Netflix drama series, The Crown. During highschool, Charles went on to board at his father’s alma mater Gordonstoun in Scotland and studied maths, English language, English literature, Latin, French and history.

In 1967 he sat his A Levels and scored a B in history, a C in French, and, quite fittingly, a distinction in history. Sadly Charles was bullied relentlessly and loathed Gordonstoun, calling it “absolute hell.”

“I hardly get any sleep in the House because I snore and I get hit on the head all the time. The people in my dormitory are foul. Goodness, they are horrid,” he once revealed in a heartbreaking letter.

Despite his trying times at Gordonstoun, Charles was elected head boy before he graduated from the school in 1967.

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Yes, the Prince of Wales penned a children’s book titled The Old Man of Lochnagar, way back in November 1980. The story, which tells the adventures of an old man who lives in a cave in Scotland, was reportedly something that the Prince used to entertain his younger brothers, Andrew and Edward, with when they were kids.

The book was later turned into a short animated film by the BBC, as well as adapted into a staged musical in 1986. 

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The future king of England had a hand in advocating, planning and designing an experimental town which sits on the outskirts of Dorchester, England. There are now  over 3,000 people living in the 400-acre site, which belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. 

According to the Poundbury website, the town was created as a “genuine alternative to the way in which we build new communities in the UK.” 

Fans of popular HBO drama Game Of Thrones would be familiar with the lengthy name bestowed upon one of the main characters, Daenerys Targaryen (she’s also called the Breaker of Chains, the Mother of Dragons, the Queen of the Andals, the list goes on). 

Well, brace yourself, because here is Prince Charles’ full official title: His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

However, should he succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, he may simply be known as Charles III.

Although he calls himself an “enthusiastic amateur”, the prince is an honorary member of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Academy. His watercolour paintings typically revolve around nature and scenery, and he would occasionally invite and pay for an artist to accompany him on official overseas tours to help capture the landscapes in art. 

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When he was an undergraduate at Cambridge University, the Prince of Wales played the cello in his school’s orchestral band. He could also play the piano and trumpet! 

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Text: Bauer / Additional Reporting: Elizabeth Liew