Celebs Who Can't Stand King Charles
Any successor to Queen Elizabeth II would view the late monarch, who reigned for over a record-breaking 70 years, as a tough act to follow. It's especially a tall order for her son and replacement, King Charles III, to even come close to the legacy she had established.
Millions of his subjects still haven't forgiven the king for divorcing his extremely popular first wife, Princess Diana, back in his Prince of Wales days, in the wake of his philandering with Camilla Parker Bowles, his now-spouse and Queen consort. He has also been notorious for political interference, breaking protocol that calls for royal neutrality, a behavior some pundits believe might continue. "He has a view of the world and he wants to impose his view of that world," said Tom Bower, who wrote a biography on Charles, per Reuters. "I think that if he's a rebel king, the monarchy will be in danger."
The new king's reign is already off to a rocky start, especially after scores of musicians from Elton John to the Spice Girls opted against performing at his coronation in May, publicly citing scheduling conflicts. Arguably, his transition to becoming a monarch has frequently been eclipsed by a royal family squabble involving a falling out with his son Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, with issues of alleged racism rearing its ugly head throughout the debacle. Besides a score of controversies already dogging his reign, a slew of other celebrities have their own reasons for dissing the king.
Joy Behar called King Charles 'corrupt'
Opinionated comedian Joy Behar is more likely to spray her verbal venom at Republicans than royalty, but the co-host of "The View" couldn't resist taking a shot at King Charles III in March 2023 mere weeks before his coronation. Behar set up her talking points by chronicling the release of Prince Harry's tell-all tome, "Spare," which dished out all the dirt on his squabbles with the rest of the royal family in the wake of his marriage to Meghan Markle.
Presumably in retaliation against Harry's excerpts that criticized King Charles's wife, Queen consort Camilla, the monarch evicted his son and daughter-in-law from their posh Frogmore cottage. "Now is that a little petty for a king to just throw his own kid out, because he said a couple of things that, you know, he pleaded with their father not to marry Camilla, for instance?" she said during one episode of "The View."
Ordinarily, Behar doesn't pay much attention to the drama percolating in Buckingham Palace, at one point dismissing its occupants as boring. But the co-host was particularly annoyed that the banished couple was to be replaced by King Charles's disgraced brother, Prince Andrew, whose association with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a settlement over an alleged sexual assault lawsuit brought disgrace to the throne. "Do you know who else [Charles and Camilla] chose to live in Frogmore?" asked Behar. "Prince Andrew is coming, right? So they're just as corrupt as anybody else."
Tony Blair accused the king of political interference
Back when he was the Prince of Wales, King Charles III was vocal about everything from climate change and modern architecture to holistic medicine and organic farming. So passionate was Charles that he butted heads with politicians and infuriated some of them, most notably former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.
According to diaries kept by Alastair Campbell, Blair's political strategist for six years until 2003, the statesman was livid with Charles's interference with government policy, from the abolition of fox hunting to the exclusion of hereditary peers entitled to occupy the House of Lords. "While publicly we stayed supportive, [Tony Blair] said Charles had to understand there were limits to the extent to which they could play politics with him," wrote Campbell (via The Guardian).
Blair was particularly upset when Charles wrote a letter published by the Daily Mail attacking the prime minister over his support of genetically modified food, suggesting that even Blair's own wife disagreed with him on the issue. "He was pretty wound up about it, said it was a straightforward anti-science position," wrote Campbell of Blair's reaction to the letter (via the Daily Mail). "It was also, I said, a cheap shot because it was an issue on which Charles said he was open-minded, but in fact had a settled opinion." In 2018, when asked whether the personal pursuit of pet causes would continue once he became king, Charles responded, per Reuters, "No, it won't. I'm not that stupid."
Russell Brand tried to be difficult with the monarch
Comedian Russell Brand recalled meeting King Charles III in 2010, and to his recollection, the encounter was hardly auspicious for either of them. As a guest on the daytime talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly" (via the Daily Mail), Brand recounted being pushed into a reception line to meet the then-prince. "I was shoved into him and I saw a moment in his eyes as we shook hands when he realized, 'That's that mad comedian,'" said Brand. "And he sort of tried to get away. I had him in a bit of a grip. I was holding on, thinking 'This is my moment. I'm not letting him go just yet.' There was a moment where he was trying to recoil and I heard his wrist click a bit."
That was the closest Brand ever got to physically damaging the monarch, although metaphorically, the comedian has frequently had Charles in his crosshairs, especially around the time of his 2023 coronation. During one episode of Brand's "Stay Free" podcast, he attacked the King over his wealth. "King's Charles has got 1.8 billion [pounds, roughly $2.23 billion]. Why would you ever listen to a member of the royal family talking about poverty or inequality or really the environment or anything when that kind of imbalance in power is what creates many of the world's problems?" Ironically, he found some common ground with Charles in the scandal department, with Brand being accused of multiple instances of sexual assault in 2023.
Stephen Colbert loved taking shots at King Charles
The United States has long held contradictory views of Buckingham Palace's famous family, with some falling for their whimsical, fairy-tale allure, while more patriotic types recall when the monarchy's brand of colonialism triggered the American Revolution. Comedian and talk-show host Stephen Colbert is definitely of the latter stock and to that end has gleefully mocked the royal family, once calling them a "group of inbred, gin-soaked jumped-up medieval gangsters," per the Daily Mail.
The late-night host has reserved plenty of vitriol for King Charles III in particular. On "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," he couldn't resist commenting on the removal of politically incorrect ingredients in Charles's coronation's anointing oil. "That makes no sense!" joked Colbert. "If a king's head isn't greased with whale intestine wax and secretions from a nocturnal tropical rodent, then I'm sorry, but hereditary rulers start to sound kind of stupid!"
Another "Late Show" snippet had a field day with recording artists like Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Robbie Williams turning down the coronation gig, prompting Colbert to reveal an alternative. "The planners are going with [Prince] William and [Queen] Camilla playing 'Yakety Sax' on kazoos."
Diego Maradona refused to be near King Charles
Given King Charles III's past as a polo player, it's no surprise that sports are near and dear to his heart, something that has been the glue between him and athletes, especially former soccer star David Beckham. But one football legend had nothing but scorn for the monarch. That would be Argentinean superstar Diego Maradona, who in 1986, met Charles when he was still Prince of Wales. Maradona was in England to honor fellow Argentinean player Osvaldo Ardiles, who was then playing in England's Premier League. The itinerary involved a trip to Buckingham Palace for a meet and greet with the prince when things got awkward.
"There was great emotion from all of us," recalled Guillermo Coppola, Maradona's then-agent, per Football Italia. "At one point, however, Diego said to me: 'Coppola, tell that big nose to take his hand off my shoulder.' I looked at him astonished, I didn't know what to do. That big nose, as Diego had called him, was Prince Charles."
The animosity was likely due to Maradona's total dislike for England, triggered by the 1982 Falklands War, a colonial naval battle just four years earlier when the Brits defeated Argentina over the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. The star managed to get personal revenge against his vilified nation, scoring two goals for Argentina in a victory against England on their way to a 1986 World Cup title.
Morrissey took a shot at King Charles in his music
Wacky warbler Morrissey has had it in for King Charles III as far back as 1986. Back then, he fronted The Smiths, which dropped their album "The Queen Is Dead," from which the title track confronted the monarch with the following lyrics: "I say, 'Charles, don't you ever crave / To appear on the front of the Daily Mail / Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?'"
The singer-songwriter never shied away from taking shots at Britain's famous family ever since. Before the wedding between Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, in 2011, Morrissey already trashed the affair. "Why would I watch the wedding?" Morrissey told the BBC. "I do seriously believe that they are benefit scroungers, nothing else."
Morrissey's skewering of Charles and the royal family seems to be well-known in literary circles. Writer James Parker penned a poem called "Ode to King Charles III," printed in 2022 in The Atlantic, which mentioned the singer by name: "The trees groan like Morrissey, the rain comes down / and an owl hoots confidentially, knowing something I don't. / Millions will mourn your departed mother / and millions won't."
Trevor Noah questioned the king's competence
As someone raised during Apartheid in South Africa, former "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah can't resist skewering anyone who's the product of elitism and privilege, which probably explains why King Charles III was a prime comedic target for him. Noah's potshots center on a 2022 viral video taken within the first week of the king's reign when he appeared to be signing a guest book. First, Charles looked flustered when he entered the wrong date, then went ballistic when his pen started leaking. "Oh, god, I hate this!" he lamented in the video, per Guardian, as he got up to wipe ink from his fingers. "I can't bear this bloody thing!"
"It's going to take a lot of work to shape the monarchy into something that everyone can get behind," noted Noah on a "The Daily Show" episode. "But based on his first week in power, looks like King Charles isn't the guy to do it." Noah also mocked Charles, who apparently surrounds himself with handlers doing menial tasks like picking up items for the king. "When I was a kid, I thought kings had to pull swords out of stones," he recalled. "This dude can barely pull his d*** out of own his pants?" British tabloids reacted in anger to Noah's attacks on Charles, with the Daily Mail condemning the comedian for his "brutal swipe" at the royal and dubbing him "profane" and "tasteless."
John Oliver's insults towards King Charles bordered on cruelty
Despite his button-down attire and English accent, comedian John Oliver is anything but a monarchist. "I think my position on the royal family is pretty well documented," he said on one episode of his HBO talk show, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver." "To me, they're like a human appendix. We've long evolved past needing them and there's a compelling case for their surgical removal." Oliver was especially harsh towards King Charles, calling him everything from "the world's least likable orphan" to "a man whose face only a mother could love and only two cousins could produce."
In 2022, Sky, which carries "Last Week Tonight" in the U.K., censored some of Oliver's controversial commentary surrounding Queen Elizabeth's death, prompting an angry response from fans on social media. Those edits bewildered Oliver more than anything. "All I said was that Britain is still mourning the shocking loss, right, of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes," he said on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." "It's literally not a joke."
Oliver's dislike of England's hierarchal mentality compelled him to reject receiving the Order of the British Empire, one of the highest honors a U.K. citizen can receive. "My wife was mad, though, 'cause she wanted to go to Buckingham Palace," Oliver recalled. "I had to kind of explain to her, 'Listen, there's a class system in England. This is stuff, it's not important for you to know this, but I really can't go there and behave.'"
Howard Stern called King Charles a five-letter name
Howard Stern has made it a career of lambasting those he dislikes, and about King Charles III, the shock jock didn't mince words. "First of all Prince Charles is a p***y," said Stern on his SiriusXM broadcast (via Variety). "The whole ceremony they're acting like that f***ing guy went to war or something and then beat up all the other people."
Stern added he was repulsed by a coronation that put British taxpayers on the hook for such an expensive event. While Buckingham Palace officials were hardly transparent over how much the royal affair cost, CNBC ballparked the range as between $63 million and $125 million. Roughly 2,300 dignitaries showed up for the proceedings, including singer Katy Perry, actress Emma Thompson, and playwright Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"It was disgusting and I'll tell you why it's disgusting," added Stern. "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to say this, but England's having its own economic problems and they spent a fortune on that coronation. And it's just repugnant to watch a country who's suffering through economic problems and then you see the pomp and circumstance."
Robert Smith posted a cartoon lambasting the coronation
Like Adele, Elton John, and the Spice Girls, Robert Smith's band, The Cure, was unlikely to play at King Charles III's coronation in May 2023. Understandably, the group's output of hits like "Friday I'm In Love" and "Close To Me" might not carry the same cachet as "Candle in the Wind" or "Wannabe," but it's also likely that Smith's disdain for the folks in Buckingham Palace might not have warranted a royal RSVP. When asked by Germany's zdf.kultur in 2012 whether he would have played Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee held the year before, Smith quickly responded, "No, there's not enough tea in China for me [to do it]."
Fast-forward 10 years, the alt-rock singer chose the date of the coronation to tweet a link to a cartoon by graphic artist First Dog on the Moon spoofing the coronation of King Charles. In one panel, the drawing satirically boasted an homage of allegiance that included, "The huge cost of this ceremony could buy each British child a pony" and "Let them eat coronation quiche." Along with his disdain for the new king, Smith has long had it in for the U.K.'s gaggle of regals. "I'm much better than them," Smith declared in an interview reposted on social media. "They've never done anything. They're f***ing idiots."