The public has always had an opinion about Prince Charles becoming king, but in recent years polls haven't really been dramatic enough to make headlines.
All that changed when the fourth season of "The Crown" -- in which the central plot focuses on the doomed courtship and marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales -- premiered in mid-November.
YouGov, a British global public opinion and data company, recently polled Britons on Charles' popularity, which dropped 5 percent in the last five months, according to the Daily Express. His son and heir, Prince William's, popularity rose by 2 percent since June.
Those who researched and wrote books about the sordid love triangle involving Charles, Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles have pointed out that Netflix has done harm to the Prince of Wales' reputation by using poetic license. In fact, U.K. culture secretary Oliver Dowden requested that the streaming service post a disclaimer before each episode stating that the drama is a "work of fiction." Netflix declined to do so.
The Netflix series painted both Charles and Camilla as high-brow villains who saw Diana as a nothing more than a childish obstacle in their passionate love affair. In reality, Charles and Camilla had a close friendship and reportedly did not get romantically involved until relations between him and Diana broke down following Prince Harry's birth.
The problem with this storyline is that younger generations who are now just learning about Charles and Diana's marriage through this series don't understand the toxicity of this union. Nor do they (or anyone other than the married couple, for that matter) understand what really happened behind closed doors.
I do not condone Charles and Camilla's affair; it was deceitful and wrong. Aside from that, the age difference, emotional incompatibility between Charles and Diana and so much more contributed to that incredibly painful period in their lives that ultimately led to a nasty divorce. But what many don't know is that Charles and Diana were on good terms at the time of her death. It was Charles who went to Paris, along with Diana's older sisters, to bring his ex-wife's body back to the U.K. after her fatal car accident. He also convinced his mother to give Diana a public funeral at Westminster Abbey.
It's interesting how a television show based on real events can so powerfully sway public opinion, no matter how often experts insist that viewers take the dramatized plot with a grain of salt.
And for those who keep asking whether or not Charles will become king upon his mother's passing, the answer is yes. Monarchy is a not a democracy; the Queen cannot or will not "skip" Charles in favor of William becoming king simply because she or anyone else thinks he'll be better at it. This is Charles' birthright and a job he's been trained for since he was a little boy. Unless he were to abdicate in favor of William, Charles will become king.
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