Royals on ageing: King Charles’ ‘body doesn’t work’, Princess Anne’s ‘dinosaur’ confession & more

The King made a joke about ageing as he officially opened Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in the West Midlands in September 2025. The monarch visited one of the hospital’s acute elderly care wards, where he met 85-year-old patient Jacqueline Page, from Great Barr. 

The pair shared a joke about their health, with Mrs Page telling the King she was “wearing out”. The King responded: “I know, this is the terrible thing, as I am discovering already. The bits don’t work so well when you get past 70.”

The King’s sister, Princess Anne, has also spoken candidly about ageing and jokingly called herself a “dinosaur” due to her dislike of technology, instead preferring to spend more time outside.

“I find it very difficult to understand why anybody gets sucked into screens and devices. Life’s too short, frankly. There’s more entertaining things to be done,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I suppose that puts me in the real dinosaur range.”

Prince Philip displayed his famous sense of humour in May 2017, shortly after Buckingham Palace revealed his plans to retire from public life. As the then-95-year-old prince accompanied his wife to the Order of Merit service at St James’s Palace, he was greeted by the late mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah, who said, “I’m sorry to hear you’re standing down.” Quick as a flash, Philip replied, “Well, I can’t stand up much longer.”

The Duchess of Edinburgh previously spoke candidly about one big effect of ageing – menopause. She said that while many people see it as a negative, she actually found the experience liberating.

“Really, we should be celebrating the fact that we don’t have to have periods any more – it should be a liberation, but it feels like a shackle,” she said.

“It’s described as something incredibly negative. Yes, it’s an admittance of the fact that we’re getting a bit older, we’re not as young as we were before, we’re not being, you know, to use the word ‘productive’, we are past that stage, and it’s quite a moment to admit it.”

Sophie also commented on the pressure on women to age well, saying: “We’ve got to be fit, we’ve got to be clever, we’ve got to be looking skinny, we’ve got to be looking beautiful, we’ve got to look 25 years old for the rest of our lives.”

Queen Camilla supports several ‘active ageing’ initiatives, including championing the ‘Silver Swans’ ballet programme, which supports learners over the age of 55. And in an interview to commemorate her 75th birthday in 2022, she said she takes ageing in her stride and finds it helps people to “accept that you are who you are”.

Speaking to Vogue, Camilla said she no longer gives much thought to birthdays passing, explaining: “I let them come and go. I mean, I’d be very happy to turn back the clock. When you get to any big number, whether it’s 30, 50, 70, you think: ‘God, that’s so old.'”

When asked about the positives of being in her seventies, Camilla replied: “Well, I think you can’t do much more about yourself. You’ve done what you can. I think you just accept that you are who you are. You get to be a 75-year-old.”

The late Queen touched upon the topic of ageing in her 1998 Christmas broadcast, which focused on the lessons that can be learned from different generations.

The monarch had wise words to share about the understated power that comes with ageing and how best to use it. “With age does come experience, and that can be a virtue if it is sensibly used,” she said.

“Though we each lead different lives, the experience of growing older, and the joys and emotions which it brings, are familiar to us all.”