King Charles III was reportedly bullied incessantly during his time at Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Scotland, a former schoolmate of the monarch has revealed.
Speaking on the new ITV documentary titled Charles: Our New King, John Stonborough, who also attended Gordonstoun with the then-Prince Charles, shared how other young boys at the harsh boarding school blamed him for the strict rules and bullied him relentlessly.
Reminiscing about his time at the school, Stonborough shared, “One of the mistakes that was made when Charles arrived at Gordonstoun was that we were all told he was just to be treated like everybody else. But he wasn't everybody else, was he? He was going to be King of England.”
He added, “He had a private detective; we didn't have private detectives. And when he came, they strengthened all of the rules and it became a stricter school and I think that some people took it out on him.”
“I actually witnessed one straight attack on Prince Charles during a rugby game when he was in the scrum and one guy pulled his ear and another guy punched him - right in the scrum… And there was a little bit of pride that somehow these people managed to clock the future King of England,” Stonborough revealed.
He also shared that the young King Charles found it hard to make friends at the school, saying, “He found it difficult to make friends, partly because people found it difficult to make friends with him because they got teased if they tried to be his friend. And in fact, they would make slurping noises - you know sort of sucking up and being the King's friend.”
“But you know, he was the most remarkably stoic person. He never complained, he never whinged about it all - certainly not that we were ever aware of. He just put up with it, he got on with it - and I think that Gordonstoun probably put a little bit of steel in his backbone,” Stonborough concluded.
King Charles was reportedly forced into attending Gordonstoun by his strict father, the late Prince Philip, who was himself an alumnus.