Ahead of the royal visit, we take a brief look at the life of Bermuda’s de facto head of state
The King is coming to Bermuda.
…but who is the man, and the monarch, that we are going to welcome?
77 year-old Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms, has spent most of his life as heir to the throne.
His 64 years as Prince of Wales, the traditional title given to the male heir-apparent, is the longest any heir has held the title.
Upon the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, he was also the oldest person to accede to the British throne, aged 73.
Throughout his life, King Charles has been an advocate for environmental issues, a critic of modern architecture, and a proponent of inter-faith dialogue.
However, for decades media attention was primarily on his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, and its breakdown through the 1990s.
Charles’ public image was severely damaged after his admission of infidelity in 1994, and his divorce from Diana in 1996.
Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997.
In 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, who he had courted in the early 1970s before he had met Diana, and they rekindled the relationship in the later part of his first marriage.
In the 21st Century, Charles has been extremely active in representing the Crown, completing nearly 11-thousand engagements between 2002 and 2022.
Since his coronation in 2022, he and Queen Camilla have continued their international engagements, postponed at times following his cancer diagnosis.
Perhaps King Charles’ most notable action over the last year is the stripping of his brother Andrew’s titles, including his princeship, following investigations into the latter’s connection with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
King Charles’ upcoming visit to the United States is not without its critics.
After US President Donald Trump criticised the UK Government for its unwillingness to actively support his war against Iran, Ed Davey, Leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrat party, said a state visit should not be “given to someone who repeatedly insults and damages our country”.
Nevertheless, King Charles and Queen Camilla are scheduled to be in the US late April, after which the King will continue to Bermuda – his first visit to the island since 1970, the first Sovereign visit since Queen Elizabeth in 2009, and the first ever visit to Bermuda by a reigning King.
