Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and he is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history.
He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace as the first grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Cheam and Gordonstoun schools, which his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had attended as a child. Charles also spent a year at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles had an infamously tumultuous relationship—complete with an even more infamous breakup and divorce.
The couple married in July 1981 and had formally separated by 1992. Then, after four years of separation and increasingly rising tensions, the pair finally officially divorced in August of 1996.
Diana died almost exactly a year later in August 1997 in a tragic car accident in Paris. Just a month before she died, however, Diana had apparently had a change of heart about her ex.
According to royal biographer Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles, the late royal confessed to her during a meeting that summer that she would have gone back to Charles "in a heartbeat," if he had been interested.
Read more on marieclaire.com