Prince Charles Once Wanted to Exit Royal Life & Leave UK Yet Was Stopped by Queen Mother, Claims Royal Author

Prince Charles almost left the royal family after his separation from his wife, Princess Diana. However, the Queen stepped in and stopped him. When the dust settled, he became one of the most faithful and reliable royals. Here are the details.

While alive, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was known as the mother earth and mother courage of her family. Her reign as Queen lasted less than 15 years during a period that is now fading out of the memories of many, but while she lived, her popularity was felt in all the nooks and crannies of the UK and beyond.

That fame was unaffected by half a century of widowhood and what people thought of her children and grandchildren and their troubled marriages. Despite her short reign as Queen, her achievements, as well as the contributions she made to the fame of the royal family, can't be quantified.

The Queen Mother may best be remembered for what she said in 1940 following the bombing of Buckingham Palace while the family was home. At the time, she had received petitions from well-wishers to send her daughters abroad until the war ended. Her reply reads:

"The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the king will not leave the country in any circumstances."

According to a royal author named Gareth Russell, the Queen possessed an Edwardian concept of duty which left no space for complaints regardless of how unhappy the person might be.

According to Russell, the stunt Harry pulled by leaving the royal family directly contradicts the values of the late Queen mother, who coined the statement: "Never explain, never complain."

His approval rating, which was at 82 percent, initially fell to 41 percent after his separation from Princess Diana in 1996.

Russell also revealed that during Archie's christening, a journalist had asked the Queen what advice she would give to her great-grandsons, and she said something along the lines of "always put your country first."

QUEEN MOTHER STOPPED CHARLES FROM LEAVING HIS COUNTRY

Gareth Russell believes that if the Queen Mother were still alive, she would probably not have understood Harry's decision to live abroad, given her own unwavering loyalty to her people and the crown.

Russell's deduction was coined from a similar occurrence in the past, which involved Prince Charles. Apparently, after his separation from Princess Diana, he had been contemplating going to live in Tuscany for most of the year and would have most likely done so if the Queen Mother had not caught wind of it.

To prevent his exit, she invited Charles to dinner, during which she suddenly started talking about his great uncle and great-aunt, two people she rarely ever spoke about.

According to Russell, she never forbade him from leaving, but something about the way she put her words communicated her message; he couldn't leave. Russell said:

"The Queen Mother never went in a straight line. She kind of wove in her point."

Had she not intervened, Charles would most likely have moved to Italy and eventually left the royal family as he was genuinely struggling with negative attention from the press at the time. He and Diana had been involved in scandals, and reports of it had been circulating among the masses.

Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles had become public after a recording of an intimate phone call was leaked in the press. Both parties took a lot of heat from members of the public and the media, with Camilla getting blamed for ruining Charles' marriage.

All that backlash had Charles feeling trapped and unhappy, so he started entertaining thoughts of leaving the UK. Fortunately, after their cryptic discussion at dinner, he listened to the Queen Mother.

His obedience was proof of their strong bond, which grew while he was younger, and the Queen Mother always looked after him and Princess Anne. When she passed away in 2002, Charles revealed how special she was to him in his emotional eulogy.

He referred to her as a "magical grandmother" and said she meant everything to him. Indeed, her actions saved the next king of the UK, and Charles has never forgotten.

CHARLES MIGHT "HAVE A BATTLE ON HIS HANDS" ONCE HE IS KING

After the Queen Mother convinced Charles to remain in the UK, he became one of the most reliable and faithful royals who served the Queen.

With the current monarch's failing health, it is expected that Charles will soon take over her duties as ruler. As preparations for his ascension deepen, other royal family members have started planning what they will do after his coronation.

Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine, has revealed that the plans have been going on outside the public eye for years now. According to Jack Royston and Kristen Meinzer, he will reportedly have to face two key issues when he assumes the throne.

One of them has to do with the public's opinion of him; apparently, he is not as popular among the people as the current Queen is, so they are not as warm towards him. Today, he is the fourth most popular Royal behind the Queen, Prince William, and Kate Middleton.

His approval rating, which was at 82 percent, initially fell to 41 percent after his separation from Princess Diana in 1996. It has risen over the years, but there's still a lot of work to be done if he wishes to strike a chord within the people he will be ruling after the Queen steps down.

The second problem is that he will be under a lot of pressure to make good decisions, especially when it comes to handling crises. The Queen is known to be able to contain any crisis with more relative ease than Charles, and her decades-long reign is proof of that.

On the other hand, Charles does not have such a stellar track record. According to Royston, he has made quite some questionable decisions in the past, and he worries that filling the Queen's big shoes won't be easy.