title: Charles III

text: Charles's girlfriends included Georgiana Russell, the daughter of Sir John Russell, who was British ambassador to Spain; Lady Jane Wellesley, the daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington; Davina Sheffield; Lady Sarah Spencer; and Camilla Shand, who later became his second wife.


title: Charles III

text: Early in 1974, Mountbatten began corresponding with 25-year-old Charles about a potential marriage to Amanda Knatchbull, Mountbatten's granddaughter. Charles wrote to Amanda's mother, Lady Brabourne, who was also his godmother, expressing interest in her daughter. Lady Brabourne replied approvingly, though she suggested that a courtship with a 16-year-old was premature. Four years later, Mountbatten arranged for Amanda and himself to accompany Charles on his 1980 tour of India. Both fathers, however, objected; Philip feared that Charles would be eclipsed by his famous uncle (who had served as the last British Viceroy and first Governor-General of India), while Lord Brabourne warned that a joint visit would concentrate media attention on the cousins before they could decide on becoming a couple. However, in August 1979, before Charles would depart alone for India, Mountbatten was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army. When Charles returned, he proposed to Amanda, but in addition to her grandfather, she had lost her paternal grandmother and youngest brother Nicholas in the bomb attack and was now reluctant to join the royal family. In June 1980, Charles officially turned down Chevening House, placed at his disposal since 1974, as his future residence. Chevening, a stately home in Kent, was bequeathed, along with an endowment, to the Crown by the last Earl Stanhope, Amanda's childless great-uncle, in the hope that Charles would eventually occupy it. In 1977, a newspaper report mistakenly announced his engagement to Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg.


title: Charles III

text: Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while he was visiting her home, Althorp. He was the companion of her elder sister, Sarah, and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While Charles and Diana were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend's barbecue in July, she mentioned that he had looked forlorn and in need of care at the funeral of his granduncle Lord Mountbatten. Soon, according to Charles's chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, "without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride", and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.


title: Charles III

text: Charles's cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her. Meanwhile, the couple's continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana's reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten's criteria), Charles construed his father's advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.


title: Charles III

text: Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981; she accepted and they married in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July of that year. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits generated by the Duchy of Cornwall from 50% to 25%. The couple lived at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (b. 1982) and Henry (known as "Harry") (b. 1984). Charles set a precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children's births.


title: Charles III

text: Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple's incompatibility and near 13-year age difference. By November 1986, Charles had fully resumed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (née Shand). In a videotape recorded by Peter Settelen in 1992, Diana admitted that by 1986, she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment." It is thought she was referring to Barry Mannakee, who was transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986 after his managers had determined that his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate. Diana later commenced a relationship with Major James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor. Charles and Diana's evident discomfort in each other's company led to them being dubbed "The Glums" by the press. Diana exposed Charles's affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, "". Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced. Persistent suggestions that Hewitt is Prince Harry's father have been based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time Diana's affair with Hewitt began.


title: Charles III

text: In December 1992, British prime minister John Major announced the couple's legal separation in Parliament. In early 1993, the British press published transcripts of a passionate bugged telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla from 1989, which was dubbed "Camillagate" and "Tampongate" by the press. Charles sought public understanding in a television film, "", with Jonathan Dimbleby that was broadcast on 29 June 1994. In an interview in the film, he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla, saying that he had rekindled their association in 1986 only after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down". This was followed by Diana's own admission of marital troubles in an interview with the BBC current affairs show "Panorama", broadcast on 20 November 1995. Referring to Charles's relationship with Camilla, she said: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship. Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996, after being formally advised by the Queen in December 1995 to end the marriage. The couple shared custody of their children. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August of the following year; Charles flew to Paris with Diana's sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.


title: Charles III

text: The engagement of Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was announced on 10 February 2005; he presented her with an engagement ring that had belonged to his grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Queen's consent to the marriage (as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772) was recorded in a Privy Council meeting on 2 March. In Canada, the Department of Justice announced its decision that the Queen's Privy Council for Canada was not required to meet to give its consent to the marriage, as the union would not result in offspring and would have no impact on the succession to the Canadian throne.


title: Charles III

text: Charles was the only member of the royal family to have a civil rather than a church wedding in England. Government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by the BBC, stated that such a marriage was illegal, though these were dismissed by Charles's spokesman, and explained to be obsolete by the sitting government.


title: Charles III

text: The marriage was scheduled to take place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle, with a subsequent religious blessing at St George's Chapel. The venue was subsequently changed to Windsor Guildhall, because a civil marriage at Windsor Castle would oblige the venue to be available to anyone who wished to be married there. Four days before the wedding, it was postponed from the originally scheduled date of 8 April until the following day in order to allow Charles and some of the invited dignitaries to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.


title: Charles III

text: Charles's parents did not attend the civil marriage ceremony; the Queen's reluctance to attend possibly arose from her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh did attend the service of blessing and later held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle. The blessing, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, was televised.


title: Charles III

text: In 2008, "The Daily Telegraph" described Charles as the "hardest-working member of the royal family". He carried out 560 official engagements in 2008, 499 in 2010, and over 600 in 2011.


title: Charles III

text: During his time as Prince of Wales, Charles undertook official duties on behalf of the Queen. He officiated at investitures and attended the funerals of foreign dignitaries. Charles made regular tours of Wales, fulfilling a week of engagements each summer, and attending important national occasions, such as opening the Senedd. The six trustees of the Royal Collection Trust met three times a year under his chairmanship.


title: Charles III

text: In 1970, Charles visited Bermuda to mark the Parliament of Bermuda's 350th anniversary. In his speech to parliament and referring to the actions of Charles I, Charles said "Bearing in mind I am the first Charles to have anything to do with a Parliament for 350 years, I might have turned nasty and dissolved you". Charles also represented the Queen at the independence celebrations in Fiji in 1970, the Bahamas in 1973, Papua New Guinea in 1975, Zimbabwe in 1980, and Brunei in 1984.


title: Charles III

text: In 1983, Christopher John Lewis, who had fired a shot with a .22 rifle at the Queen in 1981, attempted to escape a psychiatric hospital in order to assassinate Charles, who was visiting New Zealand with his first wife, Diana, and son William. While Charles was visiting Australia on Australia Day in January 1994, David Kang fired two shots at him from a starting pistol in protest of the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps. In 1995, Charles became the first member of the royal family to visit the Republic of Ireland in an official capacity. In 1997, Charles represented the Queen at the Hong Kong handover ceremony. At the ceremony, he read the Queen's message to Hong Kongers, which said: "Britain is part of Hong Kong's history and Hong Kong is part of Britain's history. We are also part of each other's future".


title: Charles III

text: In 2000, Charles revived the tradition of the Prince of Wales having an official harpist, in order to foster Welsh talent at playing the harp, the national instrument of Wales. His service to the Canadian Armed Forces permits him to be informed of troop activities, and allows him to visit these troops while in Canada or overseas, taking part in ceremonial occasions. For instance, in 2001 he placed a specially commissioned wreath, made from vegetation taken from French battlefields, at the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and in 1981 he became the patron of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. At the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Charles unintentionally caused controversy when he shook hands with the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who had been seated next to him. Charles's office subsequently released a statement saying: "The Prince of Wales was caught by surprise and not in a position to avoid shaking Mr Mugabe's hand. The Prince finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent. He has supported the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund, which works with those being oppressed by the regime. The Prince also recently met Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, an outspoken critic of the government." In November 2001, Charles was struck in the face with three red carnations by teenager Alina Lebedeva, whilst he was on an official visit to Latvia.


title: Charles III

text: In 2010, Charles represented the Queen at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. He attends official events in the United Kingdom in support of Commonwealth countries, such as the Christchurch earthquake memorial service at Westminster Abbey in 2011. From 15 to 17 November 2013, he represented the Queen for the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.


title: Charles III

text: In 2013, Charles donated an unspecified sum of money to the British Red Cross Syria Crisis appeal and DEC Syria appeal, which is run by 14 British charities to help victims of the Syrian civil war. According to "The Guardian", it is believed that after turning 65 years old in 2013, Charles donated his state pension to an unnamed charity that supports elderly people. In March 2014, Charles arranged for five million measles-rubella vaccinations for children in the Philippines on the outbreak of measles in South-East Asia. According to Clarence House, Charles was affected by news of the damage caused by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. International Health Partners, of which he has been Patron since 2004, sent the vaccines, which are believed to protect five million children below the age of five from measles.


title: Charles III

text: Letters sent by Charles to government ministers during 2004 and 2005 – the so-called black spider memos – presented potential embarrassment following a challenge by "The Guardian" newspaper to release the letters under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In March 2015, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom decided that Charles's letters must be released. The letters were published by the Cabinet Office on 13 May 2015. Reaction to the memos upon their release was largely supportive of Charles, with little criticism of him. The memos were variously described in the press as "underwhelming" and "harmless" and that their release had "backfired on those who seek to belittle him", with reaction from the public also supportive. In 2015, it was revealed that Charles had access to confidential UK cabinet papers.


title: Charles III

text: Charles and Camilla made their first joint trip to the Republic of Ireland in May 2015. The trip was called an important step in "promoting peace and reconciliation" by the British Embassy. During the trip, Charles shook hands in Galway with Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin and widely believed to be the leader of the IRA, the militant group that had murdered Charles's relatives in a terror attack. The Galway event was described by the media as a "historic handshake" and a "significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations". In the run up to Charles's visit, two Irish republican dissidents were arrested for planning a bomb attack. Semtex and rockets were found at the Dublin home of suspect Donal Ó Coisdealbha, member of a self-styled "Óglaigh na hÉireann" organisation, who was later jailed for five and a half years. He was connected to a veteran republican, Seamus McGrane of County Louth, a member of the Real IRA, who was jailed for 11 and a half years.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has made frequent visits to Saudi Arabia in order to promote arms exports for companies such as BAE Systems. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, he met with the commander of Saudi Arabia's National Guard Mutaib bin Abdullah. In February 2014, he took part in a traditional sword dance with members of the Saudi royal family at the Janariyah festival in Riyadh. At the same festival, British arms company BAE Systems was honoured by Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz. Charles was criticised by Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier in 2016 over his role in the sale of Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. According to Charles's biographer Catherine Mayer, a "Time" magazine journalist who claims to have interviewed several sources from Charles's inner circle, he "doesn't like being used to market weaponry" in deals with Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states. According to Mayer, Charles has only raised his objections to being used to sell weapons abroad in private.


title: Charles III

text: Commonwealth heads of government decided at their 2018 meeting that Charles would be the next Head of the Commonwealth after the Queen. The head is chosen and therefore not hereditary.


title: Charles III

text: On 7 March 2019, the Queen hosted a Buckingham Palace event to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales. Guests at the event included the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prime Minister Theresa May and Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford. The same month, at the request of the British government, Charles and Camilla went on an official tour to Cuba, making them the first British royalty to visit the country. The tour was seen as an effort to form a closer relationship between the UK and Cuba.


title: Charles III

text: In January 2020, Charles became the first British patron of the International Rescue Committee, a charity which aims to help refugees and those displaced by war, persecution, or natural disaster. In April 2021 and following a surge in COVID-19 cases in India, Charles issued a statement, announcing the launch of an emergency appeal for India by the British Asian Trust, of which he is the founder. The appeal, called Oxygen for India, helped with buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals in need.


title: Charles III

text: On 25 March 2020, it was announced that Charles had contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic. He and his wife subsequently isolated at their Birkhall residence. Camilla was also tested but returned a negative result. Clarence House stated that he showed "mild symptoms" but "remains in good health". They further explained, "It is not possible to ascertain from whom the prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks." Several newspapers were critical that Charles and Camilla were tested promptly at a time when many NHS doctors, nurses and patients had been unable to be tested expeditiously. On 30 March 2020, Clarence House announced that Charles had recovered from the virus, and that, after consulting his doctor, he was no longer isolating. Two days later, he stated in a video that he would continue to practise social distancing.


title: Charles III

text: In October 2020, a letter sent by Charles to Australian governor-general John Kerr after the 1975 dismissal from office of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was released as a part of the collection of palace letters regarding the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. In the letter, Charles appeared to be supportive of Kerr's decision, writing that what Kerr "did last year was right and the courageous thing to do – and most Australians seemed to endorse your decision when it came to the point," adding that he should not worry about "demonstrations and stupidities" that arose following his decision.


title: Charles III

text: In November 2021, Charles attended the ceremonies held to mark Barbados's transition into a parliamentary republic, which removed the Queen as Barbadian head of state. Charles was invited by Prime Minister Mia Mottley as the future head of the Commonwealth, and it was the first time that a member of the royal family attended the transition of a realm to a republic.


title: Charles III

text: On 10 February 2022, it was announced that Charles had tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time and was self-isolating. His wife later also confirmed contracting the virus, followed by the Queen herself 10 days after Charles's second diagnosis. Charles and his wife had received doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.


title: Charles III

text: In May 2022, Charles attended the State Opening of Parliament and delivered the Queen's Speech on behalf of his mother as a counsellor of state for the first time. In June 2022, "The Times" reported that Charles had privately described the UK Government's Rwanda asylum plan as "appalling" and feared that it would overshadow the June Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda, where Charles represented the Queen. It was later reported that cabinet ministers had warned Charles to avoid making political comments, as they feared a constitutional crisis could arise if he continued to make such statements once he became king.


title: Charles III

text: Prior to acceding to the British throne, opinion polls put Charles's popularity with the British people at 42%, with a 2018 BMG Research poll finding that 46% of Britons wanted Charles to abdicate immediately upon accession to the throne, in favour of William. A 2021 opinion poll reported that 60% of the British public had a favourable opinion of him. Polling suggested that his popularity increased sharply after he became king.


title: Charles III

text: Charles acceded to the British throne on 8 September 2022, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Charles was the longest-serving British heir apparent, having surpassed Edward VII's record of 59 years on 20 April 2011. When he became monarch at the age of 73, he was the oldest person to do so, the previous record holder being William IV, who was 64 when he became king in 1830.


title: Charles III

text: Plans for Charles's coronation have been made for many years, under the code name "Operation Golden Orb". Reports before his accession suggested that Charles's coronation would be simpler and smaller in scale than his mother's in 1953, with the ceremony expected to be "shorter, smaller, less expensive and more representative of different faiths and community groups – falling in line with the King's wish to reflect the ethnic diversity of modern Britain". Nonetheless, the coronation will be a Church of England ceremony and will require a coronation oath, the anointment, the delivery of the orb and the enthronement.


title: Charles III

text: There had been speculation as to what regnal name Charles would choose upon his succession to the throne. In 2005, it was reported that Charles had suggested he might choose to reign as "George VII" in honour of his grandfather George VI, and to avoid associations with previous royals named Charles. Charles's office said at the time that no decision had yet been made. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Clarence House confirmed that Charles would use the regnal name "Charles III".


title: Charles III

text: Charles gave his first speech to the nation on 9 September at 18:00 BST, in which he paid tribute to his mother and announced that his elder son William would become Prince of Wales.


title: Charles III

text: On 10 September 2022, Charles was publicly proclaimed King of the United Kingdom by the Accession Council. The ceremony was televised for the first time. Attendees included Camilla, Queen Consort; William, Prince of Wales; Prime Minister Liz Truss, and her predecessors John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson. Charles was also proclaimed king of each of his other realms by the relevant privy or executive council.


title: Charles III

text: Since founding the Prince's Trust with his £7,500 of severance pay from the Navy in 1976, Charles has established 16 more charitable organisations and now serves as president of all of those. Together, these form a loose alliance called the Prince's Charities, which describes itself as "the largest multi-cause charitable enterprise in the United Kingdom, raising over £100 million annually ... [and is] active across a broad range of areas including education and young people, environmental sustainability, the built environment, responsible business and enterprise and international."


title: Charles III

text: In 2010, the Prince's Charities Canada was established in a similar fashion to its namesake in the UK. Charles is also patron of over 400 other charities and organisations. He uses his tours of Canada as a way to help draw attention to youth, the disabled, the environment, the arts, medicine, the elderly, heritage conservation, and education. In Canada, Charles has supported humanitarian projects. Along with his two sons, he took part in ceremonies that marked the 1998 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Charles has also set up the Prince's Charities Australia, which is based in Melbourne, Victoria. The Prince's Charities Australia is to provide a coordinating presence for Charles's Australian and international charitable endeavours.


title: Charles III

text: Charles was one of the first world leaders to express strong concerns about the human rights record of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, initiating objections in the international arena, and subsequently supported the FARA Foundation, a charity for Romanian orphans and abandoned children.


title: Charles III

text: In 2021 and 2022, two of Charles's charities, the Prince's Foundation and the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund, came under scrutiny for accepting donations that were deemed inappropriate by the media. In August 2021, it was announced that the Prince's Foundation was launching an investigation into the reports that middlemen took cuts for setting up dinners involving wealthy donors and Charles, at that time Prince of Wales, with prices as high as £100,000 and the fixers taking up to 25% of the fees. After temporarily stepping down, Charles's aide Michael Fawcett resigned from his role as chief executive of the Prince's Foundation in November 2021, following reports that he had fixed a CBE for Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz who donated more than £1.5 million to royal charities contrary to section 1 of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. Charles gave Mahfouz his Honorary CBE at a private ceremony in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace in November 2016, though the event was not published in the Court Circular. Clarence House responded that Charles had "no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities and fully supports the investigation". The auditing firm EY, which carried out the investigation, published a summary report in December 2021, stating that Fawcett had co-ordinated with "fixers", but there was "no evidence that trustees at the time were aware of these communications". The Charity Commission launched its own investigation into allegations that the donations meant for the Prince's Foundation had been instead sent to the Mahfouz Foundation. In 2021, the foundation was also criticised for accepting a £200,000 donation from Russian convict, Dmitry Leus, whom Charles thanked in a letter, and a £500,000 donation from Taiwanese fugitive Bruno Wang. The donations by the Russian convict led to an investigation by the Scottish Charity Regulator. In February 2022 the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into the cash-for-honours allegations linked to the foundation. On 31 October 2022, the Metropolitan Police passed their evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service for deliberation.


title: Charles III

text: In June 2022, "The Times" reported that between 2011 and 2015 Charles accepted €3 million in cash from the prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. The funds were said to be in the form of €500 notes, handed over in person in three tranches, in a suitcase, holdall and carrier bags. Charles's meetings with Al Thani did not appear in the Court Circular. Coutts collected the cash and each payment was deposited into the accounts of the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund. There is no evidence that the payments were illegal or that it was not intended for the money to go to the charity. The Charity Commission announced they would review the information, and in July 2022, they announced that they would not be launching an investigation into the donations as the information submitted had provided "sufficient assurance" that due diligence had taken place. In the same month, "The Times" reported that the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund received a donation of £1 million from Bakr bin Laden and Shafiq bin Laden, both half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, during a private meeting in 2013. Charles and Bakr bin Laden had known each other since 2000. The Charity Commission described the decision to accept donations as a "matter for trustees" and added that based on the available information no investigation was required. In June 2022, a senior palace aide said that cash donations would no longer be accepted.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has openly expressed his views on architecture and urban planning; he fostered the advancement of New Classical Architecture and asserted that he "care[s] deeply about issues such as the environment, architecture, inner-city renewal, and the quality of life." In a speech given for the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on 30 May 1984, he memorably described a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend" and deplored the "glass stumps and concrete towers" of modern architecture. He asserted that "it is possible, and important in human terms, to respect old buildings, street plans and traditional scales and at the same time not to feel guilty about a preference for facades, ornaments and soft materials," called for local community involvement in architectural choices, and asked:


title: Charles III

text: Charles's book and BBC documentary "" (1987) were also critical of modern architecture, and he has continued to campaign for traditional urbanism, human scale, restoration of historic buildings, and sustainable design, despite criticism in the press. Two of his charities (the Prince's Regeneration Trust and the Prince's Foundation for Building Community, which were later merged into one charity) promote his views, and the village of Poundbury was built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall to a master plan by Léon Krier under the guidance of Charles and in line with his philosophy.


title: Charles III

text: Charles helped establish a national trust for the built environment in Canada after lamenting, in 1996, the unbridled destruction of many of the country's historic urban cores. He offered his assistance to the Department of Canadian Heritage in creating a trust modelled on Britain's National Trust, a plan that was implemented with the passage of the 2007 Canadian federal budget. In 1999, Charles agreed to the use of his title for the Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership, awarded by the Heritage Canada Foundation to municipal governments that have shown sustained commitment to the conservation of historic places. While visiting the United States and surveying the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Charles received the National Building Museum's Vincent Scully Prize in 2005, for his efforts in regard to architecture; he donated $25,000 of the prize money towards restoring storm-damaged communities.


title: Charles III

text: From 1997, Charles has visited Romania to view and highlight the destruction of Orthodox monasteries and Transylvanian Saxon villages during the Communist rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Charles is patron of the Mihai Eminescu Trust, a Romanian conservation and regeneration organisation, and has purchased a house in Romania. Historian Tom Gallagher wrote in the Romanian newspaper "România Liberă" in 2006 that Charles had been offered the Romanian throne by monarchists in that country; an offer that was reportedly turned down, but Buckingham Palace denied the reports. Charles also has "a deep understanding of Islamic art and architecture", and has been involved in the construction of a building and garden at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies that combine Islamic and Oxford architectural styles.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has occasionally intervened in projects that employ architectural styles such as modernism and functionalism. In 2009, Charles wrote to the Qatari royal family, the developers of the Chelsea Barracks site, labelling Lord Rogers's design for the site "unsuitable". Subsequently, Rogers was removed from the project and the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment was appointed to propose an alternative. Rogers claimed the Prince had also intervened to block his designs for the Royal Opera House and Paternoster Square, and condemned Charles's actions as "an abuse of power" and "unconstitutional". Lord Foster, Zaha Hadid, Jacques Herzog, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, and Frank Gehry, among others, wrote a letter to "The Sunday Times" complaining that the Prince's "private comments" and "behind-the-scenes lobbying" subverted the "open and democratic planning process". Piers Gough and other architects condemned Charles's views as "elitist" in a letter encouraging colleagues to boycott a speech given by Charles to RIBA in 2009. CPC Group, the developer of the project, took a case against Qatari Diar to the High Court, which described Charles's intervention as "unwelcome". After the case was settled, the CPC Group apologised to him "for any offence caused by the decision to commence litigation against Qatari Diar and the allegations made by CPC during the course of the proceedings".


title: Charles III

text: In 2010, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment decided to help reconstruct and redesign buildings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after the capital was destroyed by the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The foundation is known for refurbishing historic buildings in Kabul, Afghanistan and Kingston, Jamaica. The project has been called the "biggest challenge yet" for the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. For his work as patron of New Classical Architecture, in 2012 Charles was awarded the Driehaus Architecture Prize for patronage. The prize, awarded by the University of Notre Dame, is considered the highest architecture award for New Classical Architecture and urban planning.


title: Charles III

text: The Worshipful Company of Carpenters installed Charles as an Honorary Liveryman "in recognition of his interest in London's architecture." Charles is also Permanent Master of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, an Honorary Member of the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, and a Royal Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.


title: Charles III

text: Since the 1970s, Charles has promoted environmental awareness. At the age of 21, he delivered his first speech on environmental issues in his capacity as the chairman of the Welsh Countryside Committee. In order to decrease his carbon footprint, he has used biomass boilers for heating Birkhall, where he has also installed a hydroelectric turbine in the river beside the estate. He has utilised solar panels at Clarence House and Highgrove, and – besides using electric cars on his estates – runs his Aston Martin DB6 on E85. An avid gardener, Charles has also emphasised the importance of talking to plants, stating that "I happily talk to the plants and trees, and listen to them. I think it's absolutely crucial". His interest in gardening began in 1980 when he took over the Highgrove estate. His "healing garden", based on sacred geometry and ancient religious symbolism, went on display at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2002.


title: Charles III

text: Upon moving into Highgrove House, Charles developed an interest in organic farming, which culminated in the 1990 launch of his own organic brand, Duchy Originals, which now sells more than 200 different sustainably produced products, from food to garden furniture; the profits (over £6 million by 2010) are donated to the Prince's Charities. His organic interest extends beyond farming into landscaped spaces and Highgrove House practices organic lawn management to increase biodiversity. Documenting work on his estate, Charles co-authored (with Charles Clover, environment editor of "The Daily Telegraph") "Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming", published in 1993, and offers his patronage to Garden Organic. Along similar lines, Charles became involved with farming and various industries within it, regularly meeting with farmers to discuss their trade. Although the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic in England prevented Charles from visiting organic farms in Saskatchewan, he met the farmers at Assiniboia town hall. In 2004, he founded the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, which aims to support British sheep farmers and make mutton more attractive to Britons. His organic farming has attracted media criticism: According to "The Independent" in October 2006, "the story of Duchy Originals has involved compromises and ethical blips, wedded to a determined merchandising programme." A prominent critic of the practice, Charles III has also spoken against the use of GM crops and in a letter to British prime minister Tony Blair in 1998, Charles criticised the development of genetically modified foods. He repeated the same sentiments in 2008, arguing that having "one form of clever genetic engineering after another then … will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time."


title: Charles III

text: In 2007, Charles received the tenth annual Global Environmental Citizen Award from the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, the director of which, Eric Chivian, stated: "For decades the Prince of Wales has been a champion of the natural world ... He has been a world leader in efforts to improve energy efficiency and in reducing the discharge of toxic substances on land, and into the air and the oceans". Charles's travels by private jet drew criticism from Plane Stupid's Joss Garman.


title: Charles III

text: In 2007, Charles launched the Prince's May Day Network, which encourages businesses to take action on climate change. Speaking to the European Parliament on 14 February 2008, he called for European Union leadership in the war against climate change. During the standing ovation that followed, Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), remained seated and went on to describe Charles's advisers as "naive and foolish at best." In a speech to the Low Carbon Prosperity Summit in a European Parliament chamber on 9 February 2011, Charles said that climate change sceptics are playing "a reckless game of roulette" with the planet's future and are having a "corrosive effect" on public opinion. He also articulated the need to protect fisheries and the Amazon rainforest, and to make low-carbon emissions affordable and competitive. In 2011, Charles received the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Medal for his engagement with the environment, such as the conservation of rainforests.


title: Charles III

text: On 27 August 2012, Charles addressed the International Union for Conservation of Nature – World Conservation Congress, supporting the view that grazing animals are needed to keep soils and grassland productive:


title: Charles III

text: I have been particularly fascinated, for example, by the work of a remarkable man called Allan Savory, in Zimbabwe and other semi arid areas, who has argued for years against the prevailing expert view that is the simple numbers of cattle that drive overgrazing and cause fertile land to become desert. On the contrary, as he has since shown so graphically, the land needs the presence of feeding animals and their droppings for the cycle to be complete so that soils and grassland areas stay productive. Such that, if you take grazers off the land and lock them away in vast feedlots, the land dies.


title: Charles III

text: In February 2014, Charles visited the Somerset levels to meet residents affected by winter flooding. During his visit, Charles remarked that "There's nothing like a jolly good disaster to get people to start doing something. The tragedy is that nothing happened for so long." He pledged a £50,000 donation, provided by the Prince's Countryside Fund, to help families and businesses. In December 2015, Charles delivered a speech at the opening ceremony for COP21, making a plea to industries to put an end to practices that cause deforestation. In August 2019, it was announced that Charles had collaborated with British fashion designers Vin and Omi to produce a line of clothing made out of nettles found in his Highgrove estate. Nettles are a type of plant which are usually "perceived to have no value". The Highgrove plant waste was also used to create the jewellery worn with the dresses. In September 2020, Charles launched RE:TV, an online platform featuring short films and articles on issues such as climate change and sustainability. He serves as the platform's editor-in-chief. The platform later partnered with Amazon Prime Video and WaterBear, another streaming platform dedicated to environmental issues. In the same month, he stated in a speech that a military-style response similar to the Marshall Plan was required to combat climate change.


title: Charles III

text: In January 2020, Charles launched the Sustainable Markets Initiative at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, a project which encourages putting sustainability at the centre of all activities. In May 2020, his Sustainable Markets Initiative and the World Economic Forum launched the Great Reset project, a five-point plan concerned with enhancing sustainable economic growth following the global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, Charles launched Terra Carta ("Earth Charter"), a sustainable finance charter that would ask its signatories to follow a set of rules towards becoming more sustainable and make investments in projects and causes that help with preserving the environment. In July 2021, Charles and Jony Ive announced the Terra Carta Design Lab, a competition conceived by the Royal College of Art to find solutions to climate change and environmental issues, winners of which would be supported financially and introduced to the industry leads of the Sustainable Markets Initiative. In September 2021, he launched the Food for the Future initiative, a programme with contributions from Jimmy Doherty and Jamie Oliver which aims to educate secondary school children about the food system and eliminating food waste. In his role as patron of the National Hedgelaying Society, Charles has hosted receptions for the organisation's rural competition at his Highgrove estate to assist with preserving hedgerows planted in the UK.


title: Charles III

text: In June 2021, Charles attended a reception hosted by the Queen during the 47th G7 summit, and a meeting between G7 leaders and sustainable industry CEOs to discuss governmental and corporate solutions to environmental problems. In October 2021, he delivered a speech at the 2021 G20 Rome summit, describing COP26 as "the last chance saloon" for preventing climate change and asking for actions that would lead to a green-led sustainable economy. In his speech at the opening ceremony for COP26, he repeated his sentiments from the previous year, stating that "a vast military-style campaign" was needed "to marshal the strength of the global private sector" for tackling climate change.


title: Charles III

text: In 2021, Charles spoke to the BBC about the environment and said two days a week he eats no meat nor fish and one day a week he eats no dairy products. In 2022, it was reported that he eats a breakfast of fruit salad, seeds and tea. He does not eat lunch, but takes a break for tea at 5 p.m. and eats dinner at 8:30 p.m. and then returns to work until midnight or after. Ahead of Christmas dinner 2022, Charles confirmed to animal rights group PETA that foie gras would not be served at any royal residences. As Prince of Wales, the King had stopped the use of foie gras at his own properties for more than a decade before taking the throne.


title: Charles III

text: Charles, who is patron of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, launched the Climate Action Scholarships for students from small island nations in partnership with University of Cambridge, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne, McMaster University and University of Montreal in March 2022. In September 2022, Charles hosted the Global Allergy Symposium at Dumfries House with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and 16 allergy experts from around the world to discuss factors behind new emerging allergies, including biodiversity loss and climate change. In October 2022, it was reported that British prime minister Liz Truss had advised the King against attending COP27, to which he had agreed.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has controversially championed alternative medicine. He first expressed his interest in alternative medicine publicly in December 1982 in an address to the British Medical Association (BMA). This speech was seen as 'combative' and 'critical' of modern medicine, and was met with anger by some medical professionals. The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) attracted opposition from the scientific and medical community over its campaign encouraging general practitioners to offer herbal and other alternative treatments to National Health Service patients. In June 2004, during a speech to healthcare professionals at a conference, he advocated using Gerson therapy treatments, such as coffee enemas, to treat cancer patients and said he knew of a terminally ill cancer patient who was cured with them. He said: "I know of one patient who turned to Gerson Therapy having been told that she was suffering from terminal cancer, and would not survive another course of chemotherapy. Happily, seven years later she is alive and well." These comments drew criticism from medical professionals such as Michael Baum. In May 2006, Charles made a speech at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, urging the integration of conventional and alternative medicine and arguing for homeopathy.


title: Charles III

text: In April 2008, "The Times" published a letter from Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, which asked the FIH to recall two guides promoting alternative medicine, saying "the majority of alternative therapies appear to be clinically ineffective, and many are downright dangerous." A speaker for the FIH countered the criticism by stating: "We entirely reject the accusation that our online publication "Complementary Healthcare: A Guide" contains any misleading or inaccurate claims about the benefits of complementary therapies. On the contrary, it treats people as adults and takes a responsible approach by encouraging people to look at reliable sources of information ... so that they can make informed decisions. The foundation does not promote complementary therapies." That year, Ernst published a book with Simon Singh, mockingly dedicated to "HRH the Prince of Wales", called "Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial". The last chapter is highly critical of Charles's advocacy of complementary and alternative treatments.


title: Charles III

text: Charles's Duchy Originals produced a variety of complementary medicinal products including a "Detox Tincture" that Edzard Ernst denounced as "financially exploiting the vulnerable" and "outright quackery". In 2009, the Advertising Standards Authority criticised an email that Duchy Originals had sent out to advertise its Echina-Relief, Hyperi-Lift and Detox Tinctures products saying that it was misleading. Charles personally wrote at least seven letters to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) shortly before they relaxed the rules governing labelling of such herbal products, a move that has been widely condemned by scientists and medical bodies. In October 2009, it was reported that Charles had personally lobbied the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, regarding greater provision of alternative treatments in the NHS.


title: Charles III

text: In April 2010, following accounting irregularities, a former official at the FIH and his wife were arrested for fraud believed to total £300,000. Four days later, the FIH announced its closure, claiming that it "has achieved its key objective of promoting the use of integrated health." The charity's finance director, accountant George Gray, was convicted of theft totalling £253,000 and sentenced to three years in prison. The FIH was re-branded and re-launched later in 2010 as The College of Medicine, of which Charles became a patron in 2019. In 2016, Charles said in a speech that he used homeopathic veterinary medicines to reduce antibiotic use at his farm. He drew criticism after becoming a patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy on 27 June 2019.


title: Charles III

text: From his youth until 1992, Charles was an avid player of competitive polo. He continued to play informally, including for charity, until 2005. He was occasionally injured after falling off horses, and underwent two operations in 1990 to fix fractures in his right arm. Charles also frequently took part in fox hunting until the sport was banned in the United Kingdom in 2005. By the late 1990s, opposition to the activity was growing when Charles's participation was viewed as a "political statement" by those who were opposed to it. The League Against Cruel Sports launched an attack against Charles after he took his sons on the Beaufort Hunt in 1999. At that time, the government was trying to ban hunting with hounds. In 2001, he broke a small bone in his left shoulder while hunting in Derbyshire.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has been a keen salmon angler since youth and supports Orri Vigfússon's efforts to protect the North Atlantic salmon. He frequently fishes the River Dee in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, while he claims his most special angling memories are from his time in Vopnafjörður, Iceland. Charles is a supporter of Burnley Football Club.


title: Charles III

text: Aside from hunting, Charles has also participated in target rifle competitions, representing the House of Lords in the Vizianagram Match (Lords vs. Commons) at Bisley. He became President of the British National Rifle Association in 1977.


title: Charles III

text: Charles is president or patron of more than 20 performing arts organisations, which include the Royal College of Music, the Royal Opera, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, and the Purcell School. In 2000, he revived the tradition of appointing harpists to the Royal Court, by appointing an Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, he played the cello and has sung with the Bach Choir twice. He was a member of Dryden Society, Trinity College's drama group, and appeared in sketches and revues. Charles founded The Prince's Foundation for Children and The Arts in 2002, to help more children experience the arts first-hand. He is president of the Royal Shakespeare Company and attends performances in Stratford-Upon-Avon, supports fundraising events and attends the company's annual general meeting. He enjoys comedy, and is interested in illusionism, becoming a member of The Magic Circle after passing his audition in 1975 by performing the "cups and balls" effect. Charles has also been patron of the British Film Institute since 1978.


title: Charles III

text: Charles is a keen and accomplished watercolourist who has exhibited and sold a number of his works to raise money for his charities and also published books on the subject. To mark the 25th anniversary of his investiture as the Prince of Wales in 1994, the Royal Mail issued a series of postage stamps which featured his paintings. For his 50th birthday, 50 of his watercolours were exhibited at Hampton Court Palace. In 2001, 20 lithographs of his watercolour paintings illustrating his country estates were exhibited at the Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 2016, it was estimated that he had sold lithographs of his watercolours for a total of £2 million from a shop at his Highgrove House residence. For his 70th birthday in 2018, his works were exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia. In 2022, 79 of his paintings were put on display in London. He is Honorary President of the Royal Academy of Arts Development Trust.


title: Charles III

text: Charles was awarded the 2011 Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award by the Montblanc Cultural Foundation for his support and commitment to the arts, particularly in regard to young people.


title: Charles III

text: On 23 April 2016, Charles appeared in a comedy sketch for the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Shakespeare Live!" at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death in 1616. The event was televised live by the BBC. Charles made a surprise entrance to settle the disputed delivery of Hamlet's celebrated line, "To be or not to be, that is the question".


title: Charles III

text: In 2015, Charles commissioned 12 paintings of D-Day veterans, which went on display at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace during "The Last of The Tide" exhibition. In January 2022, he commissioned seven artists to paint portraits of seven Holocaust survivors. The paintings were exhibited at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace and at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and were featured in a BBC Two documentary titled "Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust".


title: Charles III

text: Charles is the author of several books, and has contributed a foreword or preface to books by others. He has also written, presented, or been featured in documentary films.


title: Charles III

text: The King is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He is also a member of the Church of Scotland, and he swore an oath to uphold that church immediately after he was proclaimed king in September 2022. Charles was confirmed at age 16 by Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey at Easter 1965, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He attends services at various Anglican churches close to Highgrove, and attends the Church of Scotland's Crathie Kirk with the rest of the royal family when staying at Balmoral Castle. In 2000, he was appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Charles has visited (amid some secrecy) Eastern Orthodox monasteries several times on Mount Athos as well as in Romania and Serbia. Charles is also patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, and in the 2000s, he inaugurated the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, which is dedicated to Islamic studies in a plural multicultural context.


title: Charles III

text: Laurens van der Post became a friend of Charles in 1977; he was dubbed his "spiritual guru" and was godfather to Charles's son, Prince William. From van der Post, Charles developed a focus on philosophy and interest in other religions. Charles expressed his philosophical views in his 2010 book, "", which won a Nautilus Book Award. In November 2016, he attended the consecration of St Thomas Cathedral, Acton, to be Britain's first Syriac Orthodox cathedral. In October 2019, he attended the canonisation of Cardinal Newman. Charles visited Eastern Church leaders in Jerusalem in January 2020 culminating in an ecumenical service in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, after which he walked through that city accompanied by Christian and Muslim dignitaries.


title: Charles III

text: In his 1994 documentary with Jonathan Dimbleby, Charles said that he wished to be seen as the "Defender of Faith" as king, rather than the monarch's traditional title of "Defender of the Faith", in order to respect other people's religious traditions. This attracted controversy at the time, as well as speculation that the coronation oath may be altered. He stated in 2015 that he would retain the title of "Defender of the Faith", whilst "ensuring that other people's faiths can also be practised", which he sees as a duty of the Church of England.


title: Charles III

text: Since his birth, Charles has received close media attention, which increased as he matured. It has been an ambivalent relationship, largely impacted by his marriages to Diana and Camilla and their aftermath, but also centred on his future conduct as king, such as the 2014 play "King Charles III". Known for expressing his opinions, when asked during an interview to mark his 70th birthday whether this would continue in the same way once he is king, he responded "No. It won't. I'm not that stupid. I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So, of course, you know, I understand entirely how that should operate".


title: Charles III

text: Described as the "world's most eligible bachelor" in the late 1970s, Charles was subsequently overshadowed by Diana. After her death, the media regularly breached Charles's privacy and printed exposés. In 2003, Diana's butler Paul Burrell published a note that he claimed had been written by Diana in 1995, in which there were allegations that Charles was "planning 'an accident' in [Diana's] car, brake failure and serious head injury" so that he could marry again. When questioned by the Metropolitan Police inquiry team as a part of Operation Paget, Charles told the authorities that he did not know about his former wife's note from 1995 and could not understand why she had these feelings.


title: Charles III

text: Other people who were formerly connected with Charles have betrayed his confidence. In 1995, he obtained an injunction that prevented a former housekeeper's memoirs from being published in the United Kingdom, although they eventually sold 100,000 copies in the United States. Later, an ex-member of his household handed the press an internal memo in which Charles commented on ambition and opportunity, and which was widely interpreted as blaming meritocracy for creating a combative atmosphere in society. Charles responded: "In my view, it is just as great an achievement to be a plumber or a bricklayer as it is to be a lawyer or a doctor".


title: Charles III

text: In 1994, German tabloid "Bild" published nude photos of Charles that were taken while he was vacationing in Le Barroux. They were reportedly put up for sale for £30,000. Buckingham Palace reacted by stating that it was "unjustifiable for anybody to suffer this sort of intrusion".


title: Charles III

text: In 2002, Charles, "so often a target of the press, got his chance to return fire" when addressing "scores of editors, publishers and other media executives" gathered at St Bride's Fleet Street to celebrate 300 years of journalism. Defending public servants from "the corrosive drip of constant criticism", he noted that the press had been "awkward, cantankerous, cynical, bloody-minded, at times intrusive, at times inaccurate and at times deeply unfair and harmful to individuals and to institutions." But, he concluded, regarding his own relations with the press, "from time to time we are probably both a bit hard on each other, exaggerating the downsides and ignoring the good points in each."


title: Charles III

text: Charles's anguish was recorded in his private comments to Prince William, caught on a microphone during a press photo-call in 2005 and published in the national press. After a question from the BBC's royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, Charles muttered: "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is."


title: Charles III

text: In 2006, Charles filed a court case against "The Mail on Sunday", after excerpts of his personal journals were published, revealing his opinions on matters such as the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997, in which Charles described the Chinese government officials as "appalling old waxworks". Mark Bolland, his ex-private secretary, declared in a statement to the High Court that Charles "would readily embrace the political aspects of any contentious issue he was interested in ... He carried it out in a very considered, thoughtful and researched way. He often referred to himself as a 'dissident' working against the prevailing political consensus." Jonathan Dimbleby reported that Charles "has accumulated a number of certainties about the state of the world and does not relish contradiction."


title: Charles III

text: In 2006, Clive Goodman, the royal editor of the "News of the World" pleaded guilty to hacking the phones of staff at the Prince of Wales's residence. In 2011, Charles and Camilla were named as individuals whose confidential information was reportedly targeted or actually acquired in conjunction with the news media phone hacking scandal.


title: Charles III

text: In 2015, "The Independent" noted that Charles would only speak to broadcasters "on the condition they have signed a 15-page contract, demanding that Clarence House attends both the 'rough cut' and 'fine cut' edits of films and, if it is unhappy with the final product, can 'remove the contribution in its entirety from the programme'." This contract stipulated that all questions directed at Charles must be pre-approved and vetted by representatives of Charles.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has occasionally appeared on television. In 1984, he read his children's book "The Old Man of Lochnagar" for the BBC's "Jackanory" series. The UK soap opera "Coronation Street" featured an appearance by Charles during the show's 40th anniversary in 2000, as did the New Zealand young adult cartoon series "bro'Town" (2005), after he attended a performance by the show's creators during a tour of the country.


title: Charles III

text: Charles was interviewed with Princes William and Harry by Ant & Dec to mark the 30th anniversary of the Prince's Trust in 2006 and in 2016 was interviewed by them again along with his sons and the Duchess of Cornwall to mark the 40th anniversary.


title: Charles III

text: His saving of the Scottish stately home Dumfries House was the subject of Alan Titchmarsh's documentary "Royal Restoration", which aired on TV in May 2012. Also in May 2012, Charles tried his hand at being a weather presenter for the BBC, reporting the forecast for Scotland as part of their annual week at Holyrood Palace alongside Christopher Blanchett. He injected humour in his report, asking, "Who the hell wrote this script?" as references were made to royal residences.


title: Charles III

text: In December 2015, "Channel 4 News" revealed that interviews with Charles were subject to a contract that restricts questions to those previously approved, and gives his staff oversight of editing and the right to "remove the contribution in its entirety from the programme". "Channel 4 News" decided not to proceed with an interview on this basis, which some journalists believed would put them at risk of breaching the Ofcom Broadcasting Code on editorial independence and transparency.


title: Charles III

text: Clarence House, previously the residence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, was Charles's official London residence from 2003 after being renovated at a cost of £4.5 million. He previously shared Apartments 8 and 9 at Kensington Palace with his first wife, Diana, before moving to York House, St James's Palace, which remained his principal residence until 2003. As prince, his primary source of income was generated from the Duchy of Cornwall, which owns 133,658 acres of land (around 54,090 hectares), including farming, residential, and commercial properties, as well as an investment portfolio. Highgrove House in Gloucestershire is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, having been purchased for his use in 1980, and which Charles rents for £336,000 per annum. The Public Accounts Committee published its 25th report into the Duchy of Cornwall accounts in November 2013 noting that the duchy performed well in 2012–13, increasing its total income and producing an overall surplus of £19.1 million.


title: Charles III

text: In 2007 Charles purchased a 192-acre property (150 acres of grazing and parkland, and 40 acres of woodland) in Carmarthenshire, and applied for permission to convert the farm into a Welsh home for him and the Duchess of Cornwall, to be rented out as holiday flats when the couple is not in residence. A neighbouring family said the proposals flouted local planning regulations, and the application was put on hold temporarily while a report was drafted on how the alterations would affect the local bat population. Charles and Camilla first stayed at the new property, called Llwynywermod, in June 2008. They also stay at Birkhall for some holidays, which is a private residence on the Balmoral Castle estate in Scotland, and was previously used by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.


title: Charles III

text: In 2016 it was reported that his estates received £100,000 a year in European Union agricultural subsidies. Since 1993 Charles has paid tax voluntarily under the Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation, updated 2013. In December 2012, His Majesty's Revenue and Customs were asked to investigate alleged tax avoidance by the Duchy of Cornwall. The Duchy of Cornwall is named in the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment that were leaked to the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung". The papers show that the Duchy invested in a Bermuda-based carbon credits trading company run by one of Charles's Cambridge contemporaries. The investment was kept secret but there is no suggestion that Charles or the estate avoided UK tax.


title: Charles III

text: On his mother's accession in 1952, he automatically acquired the Duchy of Cornwall as the monarch's eldest son and became known as "His Royal Highness the Duke of Cornwall". Though he continued to hold the title until his accession in 2022, this style was superseded when he was created Prince of Wales in 1958. From then on until he became king, he was generally styled "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales". In Scotland he was styled, from his mother's accession until his own, "His Royal Highness the Duke of Rothesay" instead.


title: Charles III

text: Between the death of his father in 2021 and his own accession, Charles also held the title of Duke of Edinburgh. The title merged with the Crown upon his accession to the throne.


title: Charles III

text: Since his accession, Charles has been styled "His Majesty The King". When conversing with the King, the traditional etiquette is to address him initially as "Your Majesty" and thereafter as "Sir".


title: Charles III

text: Charles has held substantive ranks in the armed forces of a number of countries since he was commissioned as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force in 1972. Charles's first honorary appointment in the armed forces was as Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Regiment of Wales in 1969; since then, he has also been installed as Colonel-in-Chief, Colonel, Honorary Air Commodore, Air Commodore-in-Chief, Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, Royal Honorary Colonel, Royal Colonel, and Honorary Commodore of at least 32 military formations throughout the Commonwealth, including the Royal Gurkha Rifles, which is the only foreign regiment in the British army. Since 2009, Charles holds the second-highest ranks in all three branches of the Canadian Forces and, on 16 June 2012, the Queen awarded him the highest honorary rank in all three branches of the British Armed Forces, "to acknowledge his support in her role as Commander-in-Chief", installing him as Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.


title: Charles III

text: Charles has been inducted into seven orders and received eight decorations from the Commonwealth realms, and has been the recipient of 20 different honours from foreign states, as well as nine honorary degrees from universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.


title: Charles III

text: On his mother's death, Charles became king and therefore inherited the royal coats of arms of the United Kingdom and of Canada.


title: Charles III

text: The design of his royal cypher, featuring a depiction of the Tudor crown instead of St Edward's Crown, was announced on 27 September 2022. According to the College of Arms, the Tudor crown will now be used in representations of the royal arms of the United Kingdom and on uniforms and crown badges.


title: Charles III

text: As Prince of Wales, Charles used the arms of the United Kingdom differenced with a white label, and an inescutcheon of the Principality of Wales surmounted by the heir apparent's crown.


title: Charles III

text: The banners used by Charles whilst Prince of Wales varied depending upon location. His Personal Standard was the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom differenced as in his arms with a label of three points Argent, and the escutcheon of the arms of the Principality of Wales in the centre. It is used outside Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, and Canada, and throughout the entire United Kingdom when the prince is acting in an official capacity associated with the UK Armed Forces.


title: Charles III

text: The personal flag for use in Wales was based upon the Royal Badge of Wales (the historic arms of the Kingdom of Gwynedd), which consist of four quadrants, the first and fourth with a red lion on a gold field, and the second and third with a gold lion on a red field. Superimposed is an escutcheon Vert bearing the single-arched coronet of the Prince of Wales.


title: Charles III

text: In Scotland, the personal banner used since 1974 is based upon three ancient Scottish titles: Duke of Rothesay (heir apparent to the King of Scots), High Steward of Scotland and Lord of the Isles. The flag is divided into four quadrants like the arms of the Chief of Clan Stewart of Appin; the first and fourth quadrants comprise a gold field with a blue and silver checkered band in the centre; the second and third quadrants display a black galley on a silver field. The arms are differenced from those of Appin by the addition of an inescutcheon bearing the tressured lion rampant of Scotland; defaced by a plain label of three points Azure to indicate the heir apparent.


title: Charles III

text: In Cornwall, the banner was the arms of the Duke of Cornwall: "Sable 15 bezants Or", that is, a black field bearing 15 gold coins.


title: Charles III

text: In 2011, the Canadian Heraldic Authority introduced a personal heraldic banner for the Prince of Wales for use in Canada, consisting of the shield of the Arms of Canada defaced with both a blue roundel of the Prince of Wales's feathers surrounded by a wreath of gold maple leaves, and a white label of three points.


title: Charles III

text: The Royal Standard is used to represent the King in the United Kingdom and overseas when he makes official visits. It is the royal arms in banner form undifferentiated, having been used by successive British monarchs since 1702.


title: Waterspout

text: A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water. Some are connected to a cumulus congestus cloud, some to a cumuliform cloud and some to a cumulonimbus cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water having a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface, spiral pattern on the water surface, formation of a spray ring, development of the visible condensation funnel, and ultimately, decay.


title: Waterspout

text: Although they are most often weaker than their land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur.


title: Waterspout

text: While waterspouts form mostly in tropical and subtropical areas, other areas also report waterspouts, including Europe, Western Asia (the Middle East), Australia, New Zealand, the Great Lakes, Antarctica, and on rare occasions, the Great Salt Lake, among others. Some are also found on the East Coast of the United States, and the coast of California. Although rare, waterspouts have been observed in connection with lake-effect snow precipitation bands.


title: Waterspout

text: Waterspouts exist on a microscale, where their environment is less than two kilometers in width. The cloud from which they develop can be as innocuous as a moderate cumulus, or as great as a supercell. While some waterspouts are strong and tornadic in nature, most are much weaker and caused by different atmospheric dynamics. They normally develop in moisture-laden environments as their parent clouds are in the process of development, and it is theorized they spin as they move up the surface boundary from the horizontal shear near the surface, and then stretch upwards to the cloud once the low level shear vortex aligns with a developing cumulus cloud or thunderstorm. Some weak tornadoes, known as landspouts, have been shown to develop in a similar manner.


title: Waterspout

text: More than one waterspout can occur in the same vicinity at the same time. In 2012, as many as nine simultaneous waterspouts were reported on Lake Michigan in the United States. In May 2021, at least five simultaneous waterspouts were filmed near Taree, off the northern coast of New South Wales, Australia.


title: Waterspout

text: Waterspouts that are not associated with a rotating updraft of a supercell thunderstorm are known as "non-tornadic" or "fair-weather waterspouts", and are by far the most common type. Fair-weather waterspouts occur in coastal waters and are associated with dark, flat-bottomed, developing convective cumulus towers. Waterspouts of this type rapidly develop and dissipate, having life cycles shorter than 20 minutes. They usually rate no higher than EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, generally exhibiting winds of less than .


title: Waterspout

text: They are most frequently seen in tropical and sub-tropical climates, with upwards of 400 per year observed in the Florida Keys. They typically move slowly, if at all, since the cloud to which they are attached is horizontally static, being formed by vertical convective action instead of the subduction/adduction interaction between colliding fronts. Fair-weather waterspouts are very similar in both appearance and mechanics to landspouts, and largely behave as such if they move ashore.


title: Waterspout

text: There are five stages to a fair weather waterspout life cycle. Initially, a prominent circular, light-colored disk appears on the surface of the water, surrounded by a larger dark area of indeterminate shape. After the formation of these colored disks on the water, a pattern of light and dark-colored spiral bands develop from the dark spot on the water surface. Then, a dense annulus of sea spray, called a cascade, appears around the dark spot with what appears to be an eye. Eventually, the waterspout becomes a visible funnel from the water surface to the overhead cloud. The spray vortex can rise to a height of several hundred feet or more and often creates a visible wake and an associated wave train as it moves. Eventually, the funnel and spray vortex begin to dissipate as the inflow of warm air into the vortex weakens, ending the waterspout's life cycle.


title: Waterspout

text: "Tornadic waterspouts", also accurately referred to as "tornadoes over water", are formed from mesocyclones in a manner essentially identical to land-based tornadoes in connection with severe thunderstorms, but simply occurring over water. A tornado which travels from land to a body of water would also be considered a tornadic waterspout. Since the vast majority of mesocyclonic thunderstorms occur in land-locked areas of the United States, true tornadic waterspouts are correspondingly rarer than their fair-weather counterparts in that country. However, in some areas, such as the Adriatic, Aegean and Ionian seas, tornadic waterspouts can make up half of the total number.


title: Waterspout

text: A "winter waterspout", also known as a "snow devil", an "icespout", an "ice devil", a "snownado", or a "snowspout", is a rare instance of a waterspout forming under the base of a snow squall. The term "winter waterspout" is used to differentiate between the common warm season waterspout and this rare winter season event. There are a couple of critical criteria for the formation of a winter waterspout. Very cold temperatures need to be present over a body of water warm enough to produce fog resembling steam above the water's surface. Like the more efficient lake-effect snow events, winds focusing down the axis of long lakes enhance wind convergence and likely enhance their development.


title: Waterspout

text: Though the majority of waterspouts occur in the tropics, they can seasonally appear in temperate areas throughout the world, and are common across the western coast of Europe as well as the British Isles and several areas of the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea. They are not restricted to saltwater; many have been reported on lakes and rivers including the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. Waterspouts are fairly common on the Great Lakes during late summer and early fall, with a record 66+ waterspouts reported over just a seven-day period in 2003.


title: Waterspout

text: They are more frequent within 100 kilometers (60 mi) from the coast than farther out at sea. Waterspouts are common along the southeast U.S. coast, especially off southern Florida and the Keys and can happen over seas, bays, and lakes worldwide. Approximately 160 waterspouts are currently reported per year across Europe, with the Netherlands reporting the most at 60, followed by Spain and Italy at 25, and the United Kingdom at 15. They are most common in late summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, September has been pinpointed as the prime month of formation.


title: Waterspout

text: Waterspouts have long been recognized as serious marine hazards. Stronger waterspouts pose threats to watercraft, aircraft and people. It is recommended to keep a considerable distance from these phenomena, and to always be on alert through weather reports. The United States National Weather Service will often issue special marine warnings when waterspouts are likely or have been sighted over coastal waters, or tornado warnings when waterspouts are expected to move onshore.


title: Waterspout

text: Incidents of waterspouts causing severe damage and casualties are rare. However, there have been several notable examples. The Malta tornado in 1555 was the earliest record of a deadly waterspout. It struck the Grand Harbour of Valletta, sinking four galleys and numerous boats and claiming hundreds of lives. The 1851 Sicily tornadoes were twin waterspouts that made landfall in western Sicily, ravaging the coast and countryside before ultimately dissipating back again over the sea.


title: Waterspout

text: Depending on how fast the winds from a waterspout are whipping, anything that is within about of the surface of the water, including fish of different sizes, frogs, and even turtles, can be lifted into the air. A waterspout can sometimes suck small animals such as fish out of the water and all the way up into the cloud. Even if the waterspout stops spinning, the fish in the cloud can be carried over land, buffeted up and down and around with the cloud's winds until its currents no longer keep the flying fish in the atmosphere. Depending on how far they travel and how high they are taken into the atmosphere, the fish are sometimes dead by the time they rain down. People as far as inland have experienced raining fish. Fish can also be sucked up from rivers, but raining fish is not a common weather phenomenon.


title: Waterspout

text: The Szilagyi Waterspout Index (SWI), developed by Canadian meteorologist Wade Szilagyi, is used to predict conditions favorable for waterspout development. The SWI ranges from −10 to +10, where values greater than or equal to zero represent conditions favorable for waterspout development.


title: Waterspout

text: The International Centre for Waterspout Research (ICWR) is a non-governmental organization of individuals from around the world who are interested in the field of waterspouts from a research, operational and safety perspective. Originally a forum for researchers and meteorologists, the ICWR has expanded interest and contribution from storm chasers, the media, the marine and aviation communities and from private individuals.


title: Waterspout

text: There was a commonly held belief among sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries that shooting a broadside cannon volley dispersed waterspouts. Among others, Captain Vladimir Bronevskiy claims that it was a successful technique, having been an eyewitness to the dissipation of a phenomenon in the Adriatic while a midshipman aboard the frigate "Venus" during the 1806 campaign under Admiral Senyavin.


title: Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations

text: Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 25 women since the 1970s. The accusations have resulted in three instances of litigation: his then-wife Ivana made a rape claim during their 1989 divorce litigation but later recanted that claim; businesswoman Jill Harth sued Trump in 1997 alleging breach of contract while also suing for sexual harassment but agreed to forfeit her sexual harassment claim as part of a settlement she received relating to the former suit; and, in 2017, former "The Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit after Trump accused her of lying about her sexual misconduct allegations against him.


text: Two of the allegations (by Ivana Trump and Jill Harth) became public before Trump's candidacy for president, but the rest arose after a 2005 audio recording was leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself "can do anything" to women, including "just start kissing them... I don't even wait" and "grab 'em by the pussy". Trump subsequently characterized those comments as "locker room talk" and denied actually behaving that way toward women, and he also apologized for the crude language. Many of his accusers stated that Trump's denials provoked them into going public with their allegations.


text: Another type of accusation was made, primarily after the audio recording surfaced, by several former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants, who accused Trump of entering the dressing rooms of beauty pageant contestants. Trump, who owned the Miss Universe franchise, which includes both pageants, was accused of going into dressing rooms in 1997, 2000, 2001, and 2006, while contestants were in various stages of undress. Trump had already referred to this practice during a 2005 interview on "The Howard Stern Show", saying he could "get away with things like that" because he owned the beauty pageants the women and girls were competing in.


text: In June 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll alleged in "New York" magazine that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996. The magazine said two friends of Carroll confirmed that Carroll had previously confided in them in regard to the incident. Trump called the allegation fiction and denied ever meeting Carroll, although "New York" had published a photo of Trump and Carroll together in 1987. In October 2019, the book "All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator" by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy was published, containing 43 additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.


text: Trump has denied all the allegations against him, saying he has been the victim of media bias, conspiracies, and a political smear campaign. In October 2016, Trump publicly vowed to sue all the women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as "The New York Times" for publishing the allegations, but he has yet to follow through with any legal action.


text: Ivana Trump and Donald Trump married in 1977. Ivana stated in a deposition taken in 1989, during their divorce proceedings, that Donald had visited her plastic surgeon following which he had expressed anger and ripped out hair from her scalp. Donald said the allegation was "obviously false". The book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald Trump" (1993), by Harry Hurt III, described the alleged attack as a "violent assault" during which Donald attacked Ivana sexually. According to the book, Ivana later confided to some of her friends that Donald had raped her. In a statement given just before the publication of Hurt's book, and included in the book, Ivana said:


text: The Trumps' divorce was granted in December 1990 on grounds that Donald's treatment of Ivana, including his affair with Marla Maples, was "cruel and inhuman". According to Donald Trump's lawyer, Jay Goldberg, this was based on Trump's having been seen in public with Marla Maples in 1990. Their settlement had a confidentiality clause preventing Ivana from discussing the marriage or the divorce. In 1992, Trump sued Ivana for not honoring a gag clause in their divorce agreement by disclosing facts about him in her best-selling book, and Trump won a gag order.


text: Years later, Ivana said she and Donald "are the best of friends". In a July 2015 campaign endorsement, Ivana said: "I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit."


text: Jill Harth alleged that Trump assaulted her several times. Harth has stated that in December 1992, while dining with Trump and her then-boyfriend George Houraney, Trump attempted to put his hands between her legs. Harth and Houraney visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in January 1993 for a contract-signing celebration. Trump, according to Harth, offered her a tour before pulling her into the empty bedroom of his daughter Ivanka. "I was admiring the decoration, and next thing I know he's pushing me against a wall and has his hands all over me. He was trying to kiss me. I was freaking out." Harth says she desperately protested against Trump's advances and eventually managed to run out of the room. She and her boyfriend left rather than stay the night, as they had intended. After she became engaged, Harth alleges, Trump began to stalk her.


text: Harth filed a lawsuit in 1997 in which she accused Trump of non-consensual groping of her body, among them her "intimate private parts", and "relentless" sexual harassment. The suit was withdrawn after Houraney settled with Trump for an undisclosed amount in a lawsuit that claimed Trump had backed out of a business deal. She still claims to have been sexually assaulted and although he was never violent with her, she says his actions were "unwanted and aggressive, very sexually aggressive".


text: Following the incident, Harth said she received "a couple years of therapy". In 2015, she contacted Trump's campaign to get a job as a makeup artist and sell her men's cosmetic product line. She later said, "Yes, I had moved on but had not forgotten the pain [Trump] brought into my life. I was older, wiser. Trump was married to Melania and I had hoped he was a changed man." She worked at one of Trump's rallies as a makeup artist. Of the experience, she said: "I'm a makeup artist. The guy is a mess, OK? He really needed my services, and I'm a makeup artist that needs a job. Why would, if I was on friendly terms, why wouldn't I try to get that job?"


text: Harth's lawsuit was first published in February 2016 by LawNewz.com. Her case was first published in May 2016 in "The New York Times" article "Crossing the Line". Trump characterized her story in the "Times" as "false, malicious and libelous" and he "strongly denies the claims". Harth stood by her charges in a July 2016 interview with "The Guardian". In October 2016, she said that, if sued by Trump, she intends to counter-sue.


text: On November 4, 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of defamation by claiming she lied about him raping her in 1995 or 1996. The author, who had first publicly disclosed the alleged sexual assault by Trump in June, said Trump's reaction to the accusation has directly harmed her career and reputation. Carroll said she was filing this lawsuit on behalf of each woman who has faced harassment, assault, or belittlement. Furthermore, Trump has stated that her allegation was just a promotion strategy for her book titled "What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal", where she discloses details about the alleged assault. The White House Press Secretary responded to the lawsuit claiming it was "frivolous" and that the story was fake, "just like the author".


text: In September 2020, the Justice Department filed a court motion seeking to take over Trump's defense, arguing he had acted "within the scope" of the presidency when he called Carroll a liar. The Justice Department also moved the case to a federal court from a state court which the previous month had denied a motion by Trump's attorney to delay the case, which was about to enter the discovery phase. During discovery, Trump could be required to provide a deposition, as well as a DNA sample to compare to genetic material purportedly found on the dress Carroll says she was wearing during the alleged sexual assault. Attorney general Bill Barr asserted the move was a routine application of the Westfall Act that permits the Justice Department to defend federal employees against civil liability for acts conducted in the normal course of their duties. Barr stated the White House had requested the Justice Department action and noted that taxpayers would pay any judgment should Carroll win the case. The next month, the Justice Department asserted in a court filing that the president should not be held liable in a personal suit because he spoke in his official capacity as president, an argument thatif accepted by the courtwould have the practical effect of dismissing the suit because government employees largely enjoy immunity from defamation suits. On October 27, federal judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the Justice Department attempt to intervene in the case, ruling the suit could proceed on the basis of Trump's actions as a private citizen. Kaplan stated that the Justice Department improperly considered the president an officer of a federal agency rather than a constitutional officer. On November 20, Kaplan ordered Trump's prior private attorneys to resume representing him in the case. On November 25, the Department of Justice filed an appeal of Judge Kaplan's ruling in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. According to "Reuters", "It is unclear whether the justice department will pursue the case on Trump's behalf after the inauguration on 20 January of Joe Biden, the Democrat who defeated Trump, a Republican, in the November presidential election." In June 2021, the Justice Department — then under the Biden administration — argued in a court brief that it should substitute itself as the defendant in the case because Trump had acted as a federal employee.


text: Summer Zervos was a contestant on the fifth season of "The Apprentice", which filmed in 2005 and aired in 2006. Subsequently, she contacted Trump in 2007, about a job after the show's completion, and he invited her to meet him at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Zervos has said that Trump was sexually suggestive during their meeting, kissing her open-mouthed, groping her breasts, and thrusting his genitals on her. She also has said that his behavior was aggressive and not consensual. Zervos was represented by attorney Gloria Allred, and later by Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza, with whom she chose to end the case in 2021.


text: John Barry, her cousin and a Trump supporter, has said Zervos talked to her family and friends about Trump, promoting his candidacy and stating how Trump had helped her out in her life. Barry said that during the presidential primary campaign, Zervos invited Trump to her restaurant, and he declined. In October 2016, the Trump presidential campaign released an email by Zervos, sent to Trump's secretary in April 2016, in which she stated: "I would greatly appreciate reconnecting at this time. He will know my intentions are genuine." Zervos said she had intended to confront Trump and give him the "opportunity to clear the air". On April 21, she sent another email to Trump's assistant which she asked to be forwarded to Trump, in which she stated: "I have been incredibly hurt by our previous interaction."


text: On January 17, 2017, Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump, arising from his statement that she had lied about the allegations. Marc Kasowitz is defending Trump in the case. Zervos has filed a subpoena for "all documents concerning any woman who asserted that Donald J. Trump touched her inappropriately". On March 21, 2018, a New York Supreme Court judge decided to allow a defamation lawsuit against the President to go forward. On June 4, 2018, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter ruled that Trump must be deposed by January 31, 2019.


text: On March 14, 2019, a New York appeals court rejected President Trump's argument that the Constitution makes him immune from state lawsuits, clearing the way for a defamation suit. On November 2, 2019, Trump agreed to submit to questioning under oath by January 31, 2020.


text: In January 2020, a New York intermediate appellate court put the defamation lawsuit on hold, until a New York court of appeals could decide the fate of the case. The case hold meant that the January 31, 2020, deadline for Trump to testify was also put on hold.


text: In February 2021, following Trump's defeat in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Zervos refiled the lawsuit, arguing that Trump can no longer make the legal argument that presidential immunity protects him from litigation, as he is no longer president. On March 30, 2021, the New York state Court of Appeals ruled in her favor. Trump was instructed to provide a deposition by December 23, 2021. On November 12, Zervos withdrew from the case. Her attorneys said that Trump did not pay her to withdraw and that she "has secured the right to speak freely about her experience".


text: On February 25, 2019, Alva Johnson filed a lawsuit against Trump, alleging he had forcibly kissed her at a rally in Florida in August 2016 while she was working on his 2016 presidential campaign. Johnson said two people—including Pam Bondi, then the attorney general of Florida—saw the kiss, but both denied seeing it. According to an interview with "Teen Vogue", Johnson decided to stop working for the Trump campaign after the media started covering the "Access Hollywood" tape. She declared sick days until she could speak to a lawyer. In addition to the "unwanted sexual attention", the lawsuit also alleges that Johnson was "a victim of race and gender discrimination through unequal pay". In response, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the lawsuit "absurd on its face".


text: On June 14, 2019, the trial court dismissed the complaint without prejudice to allow Johnson to plead a count for battery without any descriptions of Trump's other alleged acts of sexual battery, and to provide necessary details regarding claims of discrimination.<ref name="CourtListener_5/22/2022"></ref> On September 4, 2019, Johnson filed a notice that she was not filing an amended complaint, ending the lawsuit. Johnson decided to drop the lawsuit because she was "facing a judge who openly questions whether the kiss is worthy of a federal lawsuit and has determined that Mr. Trump's history of such behavior is not relevant, and I've endured ongoing threats to my safety."


text: In May 2016, "The New York Times" published the article "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved with Women in Private". For the article, "Times" reporters Michael Barbaro and Megan Twohey conducted 50 interviews with women who had known Trump socially, during their professional career, or while modeling or competing for a beauty pageant title.


text: Other women interviewed for the story, a few of whom had worked for Trump, stated they had not received unwanted advances and "they had never known Mr. Trump to objectify women or treat them with disrespect." Jill Martin, a vice president and assistant counsel at the company, said Trump was supportive of her and her role as a mother. Laura Kirilova Chukanov, a Bulgarian immigrant and 2009 Miss USA pageant contestant, said Trump helped her make connections for a documentary she was working on about her home country.


text: Rowanne Brewer Lane, Trump's former girlfriend, was quoted at length in the article and was featured in the opening anecdote. Following the article's publication, Brewer Lane accused "The New York Times" of taking her quotes out of context and said she was "flattered" and not insulted by Trump. Trump spokesperson Barry Bennett responded to the story by stating: "They talked to 50 women and managed to put seven or eight in the story. Over half of them had great things to say. The one that had great things to say, they twisted it and called her debased which is not how she feels." "The New York Times" defended the story and said Brewer Lane was "quoted fairly, accurately and at length".


text: Two days before the second 2016 presidential debate, the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape was released, which records Trump's having "an extremely lewd conversation about women" in which he described being able to kiss and grope women because he was "a star": "You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything... grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." Many attorneys and media commentators have said Trump's statements described sexual assault.


text: On October 7, Trump released a video statement in which he stated, "I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize." He called the development a distraction and attempted to deflect attention to the Clintons, and in particular sexual assault scandals involving Bill Clinton. Republican critics called on him to withdraw from the presidential race.


text: During the second debate, Anderson Cooper asked Trump if he understood that he had bragged about sexually assaulting women. Cooper used the Justice Department's sexual assault definition to include "any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient". Trump denied having said that he had sexually assaulted women. He claimed the comments were merely "locker room talk", then, after being asked three times whether he had ever kissed or groped any person without consent, he said "no I have not". Several of his subsequent accusers said this was the moment at which they were motivated to come forward.


text: In the early 1980s, Leeds was a businesswoman at a paper company on a flight from the Midwest, returning to New York. A flight attendant offered her an empty seat in the first-class cabin next to Trump. Leeds alleged that about 45 minutes after takeoff, Trump lifted the armrest and began touching her, grabbing her breasts, and tried to put his hand up her skirt. "He was like an octopus," she said. "His hands were everywhere. It was an assault." Leeds said she had sent a letter containing her allegations to the editor of "The New York Times". Her story was printed by "The New York Times" in October 2016, along with the account from Rachel Crooks.