A FATHER FIGURE

Charles doted on the young princes through divorce and the tragedy that robbed them of their mother

He had a tricky relationship with his own father, so when it came to being a dad himself, the King wanted to do things differently.

From the moment his first child, Prince William, was born - and he joked, "He has the good fortune not to look like me!" - the then Prince Charles was determined not to be harsh on his children, as his father Prince Philip was on him.

Although his wife Princess Diana was seen to be the most hands-on parent, Charles played a very active role in raising William and his younger brother Prince Harry right from the start.

When they were small, he loved reading to them and taking them on walks, but he also enjoyed getting down on the floor with them and rolling about. One favourite game involved wrapping them in blankets, like hot dogs, until they screamed with laughter, and then yanking the blanket so they shot out the other end. "I don't know if Willy or I have ever laughed harder," recalled Harry, writing about his dad in his memoir Spare.

He remembers his father coming to say goodnight to him as he was tucked up in bed for the night. "He never forgot that I didn't like the dark, so he'd gently tickle my face until I fell asleep. I have the fondest memories of his hands on my cheeks, my forehead, then waking to find him gone, magically, the door always left considerately open a crack."

In a TV show to mark 40 years of Charles' charity The Prince's Trust, William recounted how his father was often "the embarrassing dad" thanks to his habit of "rabbiting on" and laughing at the wrong moment. He recalled being a narrator in a Christmas play at school and panicking when pyrotechnics went off at the wrong time.

"I was like, 'Er...' and literally, he could not stop laughing the whole way through the production, so several times I'd stop, cast an eye across, give him a big death stare and then I'd try to get back to my lines. It was terrible. Honestly."