AFP, London

Charles has spent virtually his entire life waiting to succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, even as he took on more of her duties and responsibilities as she aged.

But the late monarch’s eldest son, 73, made the most of his record-breaking time as the longest-serving heir to the throne by forging his own path.

Manically active on a range of topics -- though often under the radar -- Charles sees himself as a “dissident” working against the prevailing political consensus, an ex-aide revealed in 2006.

Charles has seen it as his duty to help improve the lives of his mother’s subjects, and been outspoken on issues close to his heart, notably architecture, the environment, farming, faith and alternative medicine.

His views were often dismissed and derided as eccentric or unfashionable, but others think he is ahead of the curve.

The unwavering worldview of Charles -- and his belief in recycling -- is reflected in his sartorial style.

He has stuck with the same side hair parting from the age of five, shoes from 1968 and coat from 1985 and wears immaculate double-breasted Anderson and Sheppard bespoke suits.

Charles Philip Arthur George was born November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace.

He was second in line to the throne and became the heir when his grandfather king George VI died on February 6, 1952, and his mother became Queen Elizabeth II.

He went to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, becoming the first heir to the throne to take a degree, graduating in 1970 with a lower second-class honours.

He served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976, and while away for eight months in the Caribbean, his girlfriend Camilla Shand married her old boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles, much to Charles’s sorrow.

Under increasing pressure to find a wife, the 32-year-old prince proposed to 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in February 1981 following a brief courtship.

Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982, followed by Prince Harry in 1984.

The marriage was already shaky by then, as Diana struggled with the pressures of royal duty. Both strayed from the marriage -- Charles rekindling his relationship with old flame Camilla.

Following Diana’s explosive, tell-all BBC interview in November 1995, his mother urged the couple to divorce, which they did on August 28, 1996.

When Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997, Charles repatriated her body from Paris and insisted she be granted full royal honours in death.

Camilla was gradually introduced to an initially hostile public as Charles’s non-negotiable companion. Their engagement was announced in 2005. They wed at Windsor Guildhall in a civil ceremony on April 9, 2005. She became Duchess of Cornwall.

In 2022, the queen settled the thorny issue of what Camilla would become when Charles is king, giving her blessing for her to be called “queen consort”.