Prince Harry: Charles and William won't 'extend arms' says Rae

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Prince Charles allowed broadcaster and journalist Jonathan Dimbleby unprecedented access into his private life when he wrote a biography on the heir to the throne in 1994. In a series of interviews with the author, the Prince of Wales painted a grim picture of his childhood – in a brutal swipe at the Queen and Prince Philip.

Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth highlighted Prince Charles’ obvious contempt for his childhood in his new book on Prince Philip.

He wrote: “Once upon a time Prince Charles was in the habit of complaining about his childhood – plaintively and to almost anyone who would listen.

“In the early 1990s, when he cooperated with the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby to produce a documentary and a book about his life, the Prince of Wales made it clear to all the world that, as a boy, he had felt neglected at home and abandoned at school.

“His parents did not cherish him, or understand him, in the way that his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, did.”

Later in the book, he added: “Today it is evident that Prince Charles has mixed feelings about his upbringing.

“Overall his memories of his childhood are not happy ones and they go back a long way.

“He told his biographer, Anthony Holden, that he could still recall his first pram, ‘lying in its vastness, overshadowed by its high sides’.

“Charles believes he was neglected by his parents when he was small.”

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Mr Brandreth pointed out that this negative portrayal was not shared by his sister Princess Anne, who is just two years younger than Charles.

The biographer also pointed out his parents did not agree with this depiction.

He wrote: “His parents, understandably, saw it differently.

“When I raised it with him, Prince Philip shrugged and pointed out that, at the time, he was serving in the Royal Navy and that servicemen and their families are often apart.”

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He added: “And, as his father reminded me, Charles was far from being either neglected or unloved: when he was not with his parents, he was with doting nurses and grandparents who adored him.”

But, Mr Brandreth pointed out Charles’s view of his childhood changed as the year went on.

He noted that in 2012, for the Jubilee broadcast, the Prince of Wales “spoke of both his parents with unfeigned affection”.

The biographer told Express.co.uk his change of heart had little to do with his relationship with his parents, but due to how Charles was feeling in the early 1990s.

He said: “Prince Charles was I think in the 1990s in what we would now call a dark place.

“And the dark thoughts that were in his head, and we know this because he gave interviews himself, he talked about feelings of elements of neglect and abandonment when he was a child.

“Not being loved. Those were the feelings that he had.”

Mr Brandreth explained that his resentment at the time lay largely because he was grappling with his failed marriage – having separated from Princess Diana two years before.

But Prince Charles’ harsh portrayal of his parents was completely inaccurate, according to the biographer, who said the comments were just “a reflection of where Charles was at that time”.

Philip: The Final Portrait by Gyles Brandreth is available to buy now.

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