calamity CHARLES
He says bits of him keep falling off. And—crash, bang, wallop! —here’s the painful proof the Prince is...
As HE approaches his 70th birthday, Prince Charles is the first to admit he is no longer in the shape he once was.
Indeed, the heir to the throne joked this week that he knows ‘only too well’ the inevitable physical decline that comes with reaching such a milestone.
‘I don’t know about you,’ he told a crowd of septuagenarians in Brisbane, Australia, ‘but now bits of me keep falling off at regular intervals.’
Charles has, certainly, suffered a catalogue of injuries over the years.
When he met boxer Amir Khan in 2015, the pair compared battle wounds — and it turned out Charles had done himself more damage in his lifetime than the former world champion had suffered in the ring.
From the eye injury caused by dust from a tree to the cracked rib sustained in a tumble from a horse, here is the proof — from head to toe — that Charles really is falling to pieces . . .
SAWDUST IN HIS EYE
THErE were some curious stares in November 2001 when Charles reported for royal duties sporting a rather alarming bandage over his left eye.
It transpired the Prince had been sawing a branch off a tree at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire estate, when he managed to get sawdust in his eye.
The dust scratched his cornea and temporarily affected his vision. After treatment from a local doctor, he was transferred to a specialist and prescribed a day’s rest.
A Palace spokesman said his eye was ‘still sore’ several days later, when Charles proudly displayed his patch at a meeting of business leaders. ‘It’s really a result of talking to trees once too often,’ he joked.
KICKED BY A POLO PONY
LooK closer at Charles’s left cheek and you’ll see a narrow 2in scar in the centre of his face, which cuts through his jawline into his cheekbone.
The mark is the result of an incident on the polo field in 1980, when the Prince was thrown from, and kicked by, his pony halfway through a match at Windsor.
He needed six stitches to close the wound, leaving him with a deep scar — a permanent reminder of his narrow escape.
FACIAL SURGERY
IN 2008, Charles had a noncancerous growth removed from his face. The surgery — which Clarence House said was ‘routine and minor’ — was only disclosed when he was seen sporting a small, hexagonal plaster to the right of his nose.
A closer examination of photos of his face before the operation showed an area of slightly mottled skin, rather than a mole.
As is customary (when possible) for members of the royal Family, the procedure was carried out at home rather than in hospital.
HURT BY A HEDGE
As CHArLEs gets older, those thread veins around his nose and upper cheeks appear to be getting redder. It is caused, experts say, not by sunburn nor the Prince’s martini habit, but by the chronic condition rosacea, which results in redness, swelling and dilated blood vessels towards the skin’s surface.
rosacea, which can burn or sting, worsens with age — and appears to be getting particularly bad around the bridge of his nose.
In 2004, Charles appeared sporting a cut on the bridge of his nose — reportedly the result of an ‘argument with a hedge’.
KNOCK-OUT MATCH
CHArLEs came close to cracking the royal crown in August 2001 when, despite having ‘retired’ from professional polo in 1994, he was thrown off a horse in a goalmouth skirmish during a charity match at Cirencester Park in Gloucestershire.
The head-first fall knocked him unconscious and he was in danger of swallowing his tongue until a paramedic rushed onto the pitch.
Charles was carried off on a stretcher and some of the horrified crowd, which included supermodel Claudia schiffer, later admitted they thought he was dead.
He was taken first to Cirencester Memorial Hospital and then to Cheltenham General. Although bruised and shaken, the then 52-year-old Prince didn’t break a single bone.
William and Harry, 19 and 17 at the time, were also playing and carried on after their father’s injury. Highgrove went on to win against local rivals Edgeworth.
LOST FOR WORDS
IN 1981, a stray polo ball — presumably hit by an over-zealous opponent — flew directly into Charles’s throat during a match.
The incident left him winded and clutching his larynx.
Although he suffered no permanent damage, the Prince lost his voice for ten days — leaving him uncharacteristically mute.
MISHAP AT A HUNT
DurING a fox hunt in Derbyshire in January 2001, Charles’s horse took an ‘unexpected jump’ and flung him to the ground. He fell awkwardly and it was thought he had dislocated his shoulder.
royal protection officers, who were riding with the Prince in the Meynell Hunt, drove him to a nearby hospital — where an X-ray revealed he had, in fact, broken his acromion, a small bone on the edge of the shoulder blade.
‘ He’s fine,’ his spokesman insisted. ‘It was a minor injury and it’s just inconvenient, that’s all. He’s not in any pain.’ Charles had to wear a sling for several days while the fracture healed.
ALMOST CRIPPLED
THE worst in a lengthy catalogue of thrills and spills took place in 1990, when Charles broke his right
arm m after falling from his horse during a match at cirencester.
the accident, during the second chukka, was described by a spokesman as a ‘nasty break above the right elbow’.
charles, then 41, was galloping to cut off an opponent when his pony swerved to the right as he leaned over to take a backhand shot. he lost his balance and tumbled between the two animals, one of which kicked him in the arm.
author Jilly cooper, who was among the spectators, said at the time: ‘It looked for a moment as though he might have bought it [been killed]. the ground went completely quiet.’
the Prince spent three nights in hospital, dismissing his injury as a ‘silly thing to do’.
But the wound failed to heal properly and after three months of pain — and a warning that, untreated, it could leave him so badly crippled he would be e unable to salute — he had an n operation to fix it.
Bone was taken from his hip and packed around the break and a metal plate was secured with h screws. he was discharged from m hospital a week later and was back k on the field within the year.
YEARS OF BACK PAIN
charLES has hurt his back several times over the years in falls from horses and ponies.
In 1991, he was forced to miss royal ascot because of a ‘serious degenerative disc problem’, caused by a slipped disc at the base of his spine. two years later, he aggravated the injury when he fell off a horse at Windsor.
his back problems have caused him severe pain, alleviated only when he met physiotherapist Sarah Key, whose manipulation techniques ‘infinitely improved’ his condition condition. his trademark walk — with his fingers interlinked behind his back — is thought to be a therapeutic trick to help ease his back pain. By opening his chest and pulling his shoulders back, the technique stops him from slumping when he walks.
A TUMBLE IN WALES
In JanuarY 1998, charles was galloping across the Welsh countryside with the Wynnstay hunt when he fell from his horse and broke a rib.
Despite his discomfort, the injuryprone Prince insisted on going It’s only a scratch: Charles won’t allow his catalogue of mishaps to slow his busy work schedule trekking in the himalayas a few weeks later, as part of an official visit to nepal and Bhutan.
LAID UP IN SCOTLAND
a ‘naStY chest infection’ forced the Prince to take three days off from official duties in June 2010.
he had contracted the illness two months earlier, but antibiotics failed to clear it up and, after persistent urging from doctors, reluctantly agreed to fly to Birkhall, his Scottish residence, to convalesce.
royal aides said charles hated to ‘admit ‘a defeat’. ‘aside from his polo injuries in in the nineties, none of us can c recall when he has ever taken time off sick. he’s actually been advised to take ten days off, but has refused to,’ one said.
HIGHGROVE HERNIA
It WaS touch and go in 1980 when charles collapsed with severe dehydration at the end of a polo match in Florida — and ended up in hospital on a saline drip.
he suffered another setback in March 2003 when he had a hernia operation, reportedly caused by a gardening injury from working in the grounds at highgrove.
the condition, caused by a loop of the bowel protruding through an abdominal muscle, left charles in considerable pain — and the subsequent operation meant he had to cancel his annual skiing holiday in Klosters, Switzerland.
CHAPPED PALMS . . .
thE heir to the throne displayed rather painful- looking, cracked palms on an outing in the cotswolds earlier this year.
Pictured at the event in February, charles exposed red and severely chapped skin as he waved to the crowds.
On the palm of his right hand was what looked like a sore — but it’s unclear if this was caused by an injury or simply the effects of the bitter winter weather on his gardener’s hands.
. . . AND RIGID DIGITS
GrEEn-FInGErED charles is used to being outdoors, but when it comes to travelling abroad he suffers from a strange str and somewhat embarrassing rass condition: swollen fingers. he’s he had the disorder, which only presents pres itself after a long flight, for decades — and experts say it could cou be caused by anything from water wat retention to poor circulation or even e arthritis. charles ch himself once made reference refe to his ‘sausage fingers’ during dur a foreign tour. as he and camilla cam continue their trip Down under un this week, it seems he has been bee unable to shake them. In 1986, he was left wearing a sling slin after gruesomely injuring his index ind finger in a gardening accident. ac ‘It was a damn great hammer,’ ha he explained. ‘I missed the stake but my finger came ca down on it. ‘the end of the finger came off — that was the trouble. It did not no completely drop off, but was hanging hangi by a bit.’
A DODGY KNEE
aLL those years of wear and tear took their toll on charles’s legs, and in 1998 he needed keyhole laser surgery to repair damaged cartilage in his right knee.
he had the same surgery on his left knee several years previously — the result of decades of trekking, skiing, polo-playing and generally refusing to sit still.
the operation left him walking with a stick — but two days later, against his aides’ advice, he ditched it and resumed work with a full day of royal engagements.