King Charles' bizarre morning routine – including his strictly ironed shoelaces

A particularly strange part of Charles' morning routine includes a tradition that dates back to Queen Victoria's time, wherein the royal fell in love with the sound of bagpipes and created the position of Piper to the Sovereign to act as an alarm clock.

"We have heard nothing but bagpipes since we have been in the beautiful Highlands and I have become so fond of it that I mean to have a Piper, who can, if you like it, pipe every night at Frogmore," Victoria wrote in a letter to her mother in 1843.

Every day at 9 a.m., the current Piper to the Sovereign performs on the bagpipes in two seven-minute sessions, separated by a minute in between. 

The musician follows Charles around to his various royal residences, performing for him each morning no matter the location. The tradition was said to be a favourite of Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Pipe Major Burns even played at her funeral. 

King Charles is by all accounts incredibly fussy about breakfast, down to how long his boiled eggs have been cooked. 

Royal reporter Omid Scobie wrote in Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival that Charles liked his soft-boiled eggs to be cooked for "four minutes – no more, no less, or they’ll be sent back to the kitchen".

One of his favourite breakfast dishes is cheesy eggs, as revealed by Clarence House's social media account, and he also enjoys a variety of nuts and seeds in the morning. 

Additionally, the monarch reportedly has a warming tray on hand so that his cheese and biscuits are kept at the perfect temperature at all times. 

In fact, he loves cheese so much that former royal chef Darren McGrady shared on YouTube that Charles "could live on cheese".

Charles is said to be so particular about his breakfast options that when travelling, his staff bring along a special "breakfast box" so that he can pick from his favourite foods.

"Wherever the [king] goes in the world, the breakfast box goes with him. He has six different types of honey, some special mueslis, his dried fruit and anything that’s a bit special that he is a bit fussy about," said Graham Newbould, a former royal chef, in Secrets of the Royal Kitchen.

"[King] Charles has a healthier option. He’d have homemade bread, a bowl of fresh fruit, fresh fruit juices," he added. However, on special days in the royal calendar, the father of two will change up his routine and eat a smaller meal. 

"The King never eats lots on Trooping the Colour," former royal gardener Jack Stooks revealed. "He would try and have something healthy like cereals with nuts and fruit and some honey."

As for his exercise routine, King Charles used to start his day with headstands inside his room, to alleviate his neck and back pain. The 77-year-old’s son, Prince Harry, wrote about the odd habit in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

"Prescribed by his physio, these exercises were the only effective remedy for the constant pain in Pa's neck and back. Old polo injuries, mostly," he recalled.

"He performed them daily, in a pair of boxers, propped against a door or hanging from a bar like a skilled acrobat. If you set one little finger on the knob you would hear him begging from the other side, 'No! No! Don't open! Please, God don’t open!'"

King Charles' bizarre morning routine doesn’t stop there; he also requires his staff to iron his shoelaces every day, amongst other moves that most people would never dream of. 

Former royal butler Paul Burrell shared on Serving the Royals: Inside the Firm that the king has "everything done for him", even going so far as to have his valets "squeeze one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush every morning".

"His pyjamas are pressed every morning, his shoelaces are pressed flat with an iron, the bath plug has to be in a certain position, and the water temperature has to be just tepid," he explained.