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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Kyle O'Sullivan

King Charles was 'most eligible bachelor in world' and got set up by US President

Life could have very different for King Charles III - as he may have ended up being married to a President's daughter. The new Monarch, who has taken the throne after the death of his beloved mother Queen Elizabeth II, is now happily married to Queen Consort Camilla and had his two sons with his first wife, Princess Diana.

However, he was one of the world's most eligible bachelors when he had an entertaining weekend with Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970 alongside his sister, Princess Anne. "That was quite amusing, I must say," Charles told CNN in 2021. "That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon."

King Charles with Richard Nixon during his official visit to the US in 1970 (AFP via Getty Images)

President Nixon and his wife First Lady Pat Nixon, hosted the 20-year-old future King and the Princess Royal on their first trip to the States.

The American leader was particularly excited to have the young royals as guests - and the weekend was capped by the formal evening event.

According to those who were there, there was lots of laughing and dancing, and Nixon had never looked happier.

The President took a particular interest in the love life of the then-Prince Charles - and reportedly tried to set him up with his daughter, Tricia.

Sally Bedell Smith revealed that Nixon tried to play matchmaker between the heir to the throne and his daughter.

"More than three decades later when Charles and his new wife, Camilla, visited George W and Laura Bush at the White House, he joked that the Bushes had better not try to fix up their twin daughters with his sons William and Harry the way Nixon had worked to set him up with Tricia," she said.

Prince Charles at the White House, Washington, alongside Tricia Nixon (Mirrorpix)

Obviously nothing happened as Charles went on to marry Lady Diana Spencer, while Tricia married Edward F. Cox less than a year after the Prince's visit.

Tricia did attend Prince Charles' investiture, where he formally became the Prince of Wales, at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.

She attended as part of a delegation led by former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had been invited by Nixon after he was defeated in the 1968 presidential election.

The Queen caught a cold and couldn't meet Tricia, but wrote a letter apologizing.

President Nixon had met the Queen even before he entered the Oval Office, showing her and Prince Philip around the White House in 1957.

There was an awkward moment when the then Vice President had to borrow a suit in "desperation" because he had forgotten to bring black tie.

Queen Elizabeth II with US President Richard Nixon at Chequers in 1970 (PA)

In a memoir of Pat Nixon by the Nixons' younger daughter, Julie Nixon, she explained that the night began "on a frantic note for my parents".

She wrote: "My father had assumed that the dinner would be white tie. But in London he learned that the Queen had specifically requested less formal attire. He had to come up with a dinner jacket in a hurry."

Nixon persuaded another guest, a Scotland Yard detective, to lend his outfit and dine alone upstairs.

This led to a cartoon in Punch magazine poking fun at a 'trouser-less London bobby on guard outside the embassy.'

Nixon explained his predicament to the Queen, telling her: "I'm afraid this isn't my suit."

Julie said the suit was "too short in the arms and looked as if it had come from a local rental agency", but noted that the Queen laughed heartily at the situation.

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