King Charles Once Edited a Single Word From a Commentary—and It Spoke Volumes About His Values
Despite navigating the fallout from his brother's scandals and undergoing cancer treatment, King Charles has largely kept his personal struggles private, putting on a brave front. Focused firmly on duty, he continues to lead by example, echoing the quiet resolve of his late mother. Stressing those qualities, royal author Robert Jobson revealed that Charles once replaced a word from his commentary, a minor edit that, to the King, carried great weight and underscored his responsibility to the Crown.
According to The Mirror, Jobson, an acclaimed royal reporter and author, remembered the time years earlier when one of his opinion pieces unexpectedly ended up with Charles during a flight. Speaking on The Sun's Royal Confidential podcast, he said, "[The King] He's a decent man, and he's a good man, you know, I want to stress both of those points. I think that if you saw the film Harmony, ironically, they had the premiere of it when all this stuff started to drop, that's what he wants his legacy to be. And, you know, it seems you shouldn't necessarily judge the man by his brother."
The royal author was referring to Charles's new documentary, Finding Harmony: A King's Vision, which was released when the monarch was dealing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's fallout. Speaking more about the King's edits, he added, "I did a commentary piece, and somehow that commentary piece—while we were on a plane—I got him [Charles] to read it. It came back with all scrawls on it, and the person then showed it to me." He continued, "The one thing that I had written—' power, royal power,' and things like that— that was all scribbled out, and the word 'leadership' was written in."
By replacing the word 'royal power' with 'leadership,' Jobson pointed out that Charles viewed the modern monarchy not as an institution defined by authority but by example and responsibility to its subjects. Indeed, the King is said to have been influenced by the late Queen Elizabeth, who deeply valued humble leadership and duty. Last December, when addressing officers at the Lord High Admiral's Divisions parade, Charles had said, "My own service taught me that leadership is not about rank; it is, and has always been, about character," as reported by GB News.
Against that backdrop, Jobson stressed that the pressure on the King to contain Mountbatten-Windsor's scandals now is considerable. He opined, "Now, at this time, when he [Charles] needs that strength, his other son is on the other side of the Atlantic, and his brother has behaved this way. He needs the strength and support of his son William, which I think he's got, but he needs to show that leadership." Stressing that Charles is giving his level best, he argued, "I suggest that, unfortunately, this is a man who is courageously fighting cancer. He is doing his very best to achieve what he can for the country."