Camilla Tominey at the Telegraph wrote a somewhat interesting – but mostly sycophantic – piece about King Charles’s workaholic habits. Charles has always been known as a voracious reader and someone who enjoys letter-writing and paperwork, but Tominey makes it sound like Charles spends 18-20 hours a day fussing with his papers and reading everything sent to him, and I can’t imagine that’s what he’s really like. Tominey also added something curious about how Charles basically has to be “staffed” 24-7 because no one knows when he’s going to need a note or letter sent out. No “5 am emails,” but 5 am phone calls and letters. Some highlights from “What does a typical day in the life of ‘workaholic’ King Charles look like?”

It’s a struggle to keep up with Charles: “The people who work for him are worried he is doing too much for a man of 75,” confirmed one well-placed insider. “It’s sometimes a struggle to keep up with him.”

He regularly works 18-hour days: No stranger to early morning starts and post-midnight finishes, the grandfather-of- five was once described by his sons Princes William and Harry as so obsessed with paperwork that he would regularly fall asleep at his desk. “He does need to slow down, this is a man who has dinner ridiculously late at night,” revealed Harry in a 2018 documentary to mark his father’s 70th birthday. “And then goes to his desk later that night and will fall asleep on his notes to the point where he’ll wake up with a piece of paper stuck to his face.” Even phone calls with his son and heir are scheduled, taking place every Sunday.

No cell phone or emails: Because the King does not own a mobile phone, he makes the calls on a landline. (If anyone ever needs to get hold of the monarch in an emergency, they invariably contact a member of his protection team, who are with him 24/7). [Later in the morning], the King will then typically sit at his desk and go through his non-red-box paperwork. Because he “doesn’t do emails”, he will either write to people by hand or dictate more formal letters to his “executive secretary” before signing them, with a fountain pen. As demonstrated during the signing of a visitors’ book at Northern Ireland’s Hillsborough Castle after the late Queen died in 2022, he prefers not to use a fountain pen when he can avoid it and instead is never without a felt tip, usually red, to annotate the reams of paperwork he pores over on a daily basis.

He doesn’t mind a stiff drink in the evening: He will then return to his desk to plough through more paperwork before eating a late supper, usually of fish (very seldom red meat) at around 9pm. He rarely drinks but if he does fancy a tipple, it’s usually a Dubonnet – the royal family’s favourite aperitif – or a dry martini, which he is said to mix “very generously” for visitors. While the Queen relaxes by watching television, the King prefers to read and will often return to his desk after dinner.

Late night calls & messages: Because he prefers to work late into the night, there is a special roster of evening executive secretaries so someone is always on duty to set up telephone calls, take notes and pass on messages. Often staff will wake up to receive correspondence that has been delivered in the small hours.

[From The Telegraph]

I can’t believe the royal press still screams and cries about Meghan’s “5 am texts/emails.” Remember that? Meghan has the audacity – the temerity! – to expect Kensington Palace staffers to complete tasks and she sent a few non-urgent reminder texts or what have you. She was ripped to shreds for it, and you would have thought those palace staffers had never met anyone who woke up early and expected them to work a full day. And then there’s Charles, who apparently works though the night and expects his staff to be on call 24-7 in case he needs a note sent at 1 am.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.