Veteran journalist Ray Martin remembers the feeling he had when he was told he’d be interviewing Prince Charles during his tour of Australia in 1994.
Ray, then 49 and working at A Current Affair, felt excited, however he entered the chat with a bit of a sense of trepidation – he is a staunch republican and had already experienced a particularly prickly interview with Charles’ father Prince Philip.
And yet the man Ray encountered, who almost three decades later would become the King of England, was anything but the image of a stifled, media-trained royal he had believed him to be.
Here, Ray, now 78, reveals surprising details about the day and why he thinks he has his work cut out for him as King.
Martin reflects on the nearly 30 year old interview.
(Image: Getty)
Watching the interview now, you seem so cool, calm and collected. How were you really feeling?
I was nervous, but only at the start. Luckily, on the way to the interview, I was talking to my cab driver and told him that I was there to interview Charles, and he said, “Oh, what a bugger of a job,” and that became my first question, asking him if it actually is a bugger of a job. Thankfully, he laughed and said, “I guess it is,” and we were both relaxed after that – I was thankful for that cabbie.
Being a republican, we know what you think of the royals, but what did you think of him as a person?
I actually told him at the start of the interview that I was a republican, and he just laughed! But I found him to be really gracious, generous, polite and quite shy. Certainly not as confident in speaking like Philip or even Edward were. But what I was surprised with was that we were given half an hour to chat with him, and we used that all up, but he still stayed behind and spoke to the entire crew for another half an hour. I remember I left there thinking, “You’re not a bad bloke.” It was pretty stark in comparison to interviewing his father Philip.
Martin was able to tackle the topic of Australia becoming a republic.
(Image: Nine)Philip wasn’t your favourite, was he?
I found him to be priggish and pompous and difficult. I think he decided from an early age that he needed to control interviews. When he did 60 Minutes, he was the one saying, “Take one, take two,” and argued about the lights. It was really just sort of pedantic and unnecessary.
How big was Charles’ entourage at the time?
It was next to nothing! Way less than what you’d get for a Hollywood star. He didn’t have any burly bodyguards or anything. I think it’d be very different now though. At the time, Charles had formally separated from Princess Diana.
Were you given strict guidelines on what you couldn’t ask?
It was very much the understanding that I stick to what he was there for, which was about Australia becoming a republic. But it was pretty relaxed – I didn’t have to send my questions over prior to the chat. And it’s like having a chat with the prime minister, or even president – you just sort of respect that, that’s why you get the interview.
Martin interviewed the then-Prince on his 1994 Australian tour.
(Image: Getty)Was there a question that you would have liked to have asked?
I always wanted to ask what his mother had in her handbag [laughs], because I couldn’t imagine in that existence that there were would be a need for car keys or anything like that. Maybe some powder to touch her up. But there was never an article about what she did have in there.
How do you think Charles will go as King?
He’s got a bit of baggage going into it. It’s a different world to when I interviewed him and not to mention all of the chaos around his family. I think given the turnout for his mother’s funeral, there’s still affection for the royals. But I don’t envy them at all. I do think that cab driver was right – it would be a bugger of a job.
