The year prior, during her bombshell interview with BBC’s Panorama, Diana had claimed her then husband may find being monarch “suffocating”, adding she didn’t know how he would cope with the role.
However, she refused to answer a question by Martin Bashir – who it later emerged had secured the interview through deceitful means – on whether she thought it would be better for the monarchy if Charles stepped aside to let Prince William become the head of state after Queen Elizabeth II.
Ms Bond said the beloved princess had argued during their conversation following the split: “He’s stuck in a rut. Just take a look at his programme… he’s doing exactly the sort of things he was doing 10 years ago.”
But this same argument, Ms Bond believes, is what has proven the country Charles is fit for the role of head of state.
In a comment piece for the Telegraph, the journalist wrote: “It was precisely by banging on about often unfashionable causes – sometimes in the face of open mockery – that Charles eventually proved that he was a man ahead of his time.
“From his sometimes uncomfortable rut, he confronted issues most of us hadn’t even considered.”
King Charles was among the first prominent figures in Britain to issue warnings about plastic and air pollution more than five decades ago.
His battle against climate change as well as his campaigns for sustainability and organic farming came years before these issues were considered mainstream and embraced by the general public.
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Charles himself recalled the backlash to which he was subjected when trying to raise awareness of the danger faced by the environment as early as in the 1970s.
Marking the 50th anniversary of his first landmark speech on the environment in 2020, the then Prince of Wales said of the warnings he started to issue decades ago: “I was considered rather dotty, to say the least, for even suggesting these things, rather like when I set up a reed-bed sewage treatment system at Highgrove all those years ago – that was considered completely mad.”
Describing the King as a “man shot through with paradox and contradiction”, Ms Bond also noted Charles has suggested quite clearly that the monarchy must adapt to modern times.
She seemingly referred to reports King Charles is planning to cut the costs of the institution by focusing the expenses on the core group of working members of the Firm while slashing the subsidies of those not carrying out public duties.
Charles acceded to the throne in the wake of Elizabeth II’s death in September last year.
Next month, he and his wife Queen Camilla will be crowned under the eyes of millions of viewers at Westminster Abbey in London.
During the first seven months of his reign, the King has shown he is still committed to the causes he has championed for decades as Prince of Wales, but he now needs to balance his beliefs with the neutrality and distance required by his new role.
In his first-ever Commonwealth Day speech last month, the monarch outlined the “most pressing issues of our time”, including the care for “our environment”.
He added: “These are not simply ideals. In each lies an imperative to act, and to make a practical difference in the lives of the 2.6 billion people who call the Commonwealth home.
“Whether on climate change and biodiversity loss, youth opportunity and education, global health, or economic co-operation, the Commonwealth can play an indispensable role in the most pressing issues of our time.”
