How Gen Z really feels about Britain’s ‘unlikeable’ new monarch

What do young people Gen Z really think about King Charles? The truth is, they say, they don’t think about him at all (Picture: Getty/Shutterstock)

Farhana, 24, a researcher for an east England university, knew exactly how she was going to celebrate the historic coronation of King Charles III.

‘Watching a documentary on Prince Andrew,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.

On Saturday afternoon, Charles, 73, was crowned Britain’s new monarch today in an impeccably choreographed show at Westminster Abbey in London.

This was, for many Brits and beyond, the first coronation they have ever seen; Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in June 1953.

But for Generation Z – born between 1997 and 2012 – it’s unlikely they even tuned into it.

Asked last month by YouGov how much they ‘care’ about the king’s coronation, only 7% of 18-24-year-olds said they care a ‘great deal’ about the ceremony.

Nearly four in 10 (36%) said they weren’t that fussed, a feeling similarly felt by the Brits regardless of age, with 31% respectively saying they either care ‘not very much’ or ‘not at all’.

King Charles III isn’t exactly the most popular monarch, polls show (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

This indifference comes hand-in-hand with the gradual drop in support for the monarchy. In 2012, 73% of Brits said the monarchy was good for the UK, but that figure has slipped to 53%.

Support for the royals among young people has been especially withering. In 2013, YouGov found 72% of 18-24-year-olds wanted to keep the monarchy.

On Wednesday, the research firm found only 36% of young Brits want to keep the royals compared to 40% hoping for an elected head of state instead.

For Farhana, as well as other young people Metro.co.uk spoke with, there are a fair few reasons why Gen Z aren’t that into the Firm.

Some struggled to get into the pomp and pageantry of it all amid the cost-of-living crisis. Others say they feel burned by royal scandal after royal scandal they’ve seen growing up and feel Charles will never live up to his deeply-admired mother.

‘My view of the royal family has changed over the years,’ Farhana says. ‘I grew up in an immigrant family. As a kid, my parents really loved the royals, so this seeped into the family.

In a crowning moment for the king – literally – Charles and Camilla’s coronation saw countless Brits flock to Buckingham Palace (Picture: PA)

Gen Z, poorer than generations before it, find it hard to support the royal family amid the cost-of-living crisis (Picture: Reuters)

‘I think for my parents, they felt they should be grateful for whatever they were given. But for me, I don’t think we should be paying millions and millions to stroke the ego of an unelected billionaire.

‘Everyone is struggling to feed their families – there are more food banks than McDonald’s – and I just don’t see the point of him.’

Farhana says her parents still get a ‘tear in their eye’ when they think of Princess Diana, the ‘people’s princess’ once married to the then Prince Charles.

Today, Charles doesn’t quite get this reaction from Farhana’s family.

After the breakdown of his marriage to the Princess of Wales, Charles’ popularity crashed – some Brits wanted the crown would skip a generation to his son, William.

Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, long enjoyed broadly popular appeal. Charles, not so much. He is, as Farhama puts it, ‘unlikeable’.

And she’s not alone. In a YouGov poll earlier this year, 80% of people viewed the queen favourably; Charles was liked by 55%.

The coronation, a tradition dating back to the eighth century, was something some young people struggled to relate to in the 21st century (Picture: Pool/Shutterstock)

The late Queen Elizabeth enjoyed broad popularity throughout her reign (Picture: Getty)

Farahana feels the palace’s bitter split from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – where the Duchess of Sussex claimed a royal family member speculated about how dark her unborn son’s skin will be – is a big reason behind the decline among people of colour in particular.

‘I think, with Harry and Meghan, that touched a lot of immigrant communities. Made them realise the royals don’t give a damn about them,’ Farhana says.

‘If they don’t give a damn about their own children, they’re not going to care about us.’

A recent report claimed Markle didn’t attend Charles’ coronation, in part, because of a letter she wrote to him expressing concern about unconscious bias in the royal family.

‘Young people are a fresh pair of eyes,’ Farhana adds, thinking of her sister 10 years younger than her.

And what her sister has seen of the royals isn’t exactly great: the now banished Prince Andrew being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage Virginia Giuffre and Meghan saying she contemplated suicide during her time as a working royal.

The way the Windsors handled Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exit from royal life proved a sticking point for young people of colour (Picture: PA)

Harry, who attended the coronation without his wife, is generally seen more sympathetically by young people (Picture: Reuters)

The monarchy’s spotty past is a major thorn for Gen Zers, who feel the royals have never meaningfully addressed it (Picture: Robert Perry/Getty Images)

Karim, 23, who lives in London, feels it’s hard to think of the future of the royal family – and Charles too – without thinking of their spotty past.

‘As a person of colour and as a first-generation immigrant in the UK, I believe that the monarchy in itself is a hypocritical entity which propagates British values of honesty and integrity when in reality the entirety of the monarchy is built on the back of unethical colonisation and systematic deprivation of third world countries equality,’ he says.

Britain’s former colonies are asking similar questions. Nearly half of the Commonwealth – including Canada, Australia, the Bahamas and Jamaica – would vote to become a monarchy if a referendum were held tomorrow, per a Tuesday poll by Tory party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.

Jay Richards, the co-founder of Gen Z market research platform Imagen Insights, says Buckingham Palace should meaningfully address the ‘issues’ at hand.

‘I think that if the royals were to be more transparent and open about the issues that are engulfing them then they would have a stronger buy-in from the younger generations,’ he says.

‘Holding themselves to account could actually help them to win back some of the hearts and minds of Gen Z.’

King Charles set the tone for his reign as he remarked: ‘I come not to be served, but to serve’ (Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The newly-crowned king and queen pulled up to Buckingham Palace in a golden stagecoach (Picture: Getty Images Europe

Wealth was something that touched a nerve for many Gen Zers when thinking of Charles and the coronation, a feeling exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.

According to an analysis by The Guardian, the king’s personal wealth is almost £2,000,000,000.

It’s made up of, among other inherited assets, Rolls-Royces, racehorses, Monet paintings and gemstones. (The Windsors are immune to inheritance tax.)

Charles’ coronation came at a time when food and fuel prices have remained sky-high for months and show no signs of grounding anytime soon.

As much as Charles has said he wants his reign to be more accessible, inclusive and even environmentally friendly, young people say this is a hard message to hear through a bejewelled crown, velvet throne and a gold stagecoach.

James Main, 23, is a youth officer for Labour for a Republic, an anti-monarchy group for the Labour Party. He feels the £100,000,000 bill for the coronation could’ve gone elsewhere.

Some young people feel Charles, whose private wealth is estimated to total of about £1,815,000,000, will never be able to connect with them (Picture: PA)

The fallout of Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles’ marriage impacted the future king’s ratings in the polls (Picture: Mirrorpix)

‘Charles is someone that has been born into a very privileged family and has got into the position he is in through luck,’ he says.

‘This could be used on much more beneficial things to this country, like our NHS, schools and eradicating poverty. The pomp and ceremony should be something of the past and it is not of value to the taxpayer.’

One estimate by SEO agency Loopex Digital found the coronation budget could cover the total energy bills of around 39.962 medium-sized households in the UK.

‘The royal family is an outdated institution that is exempt from many of the things that ordinary working people have to adhere to such as the equalities act and inheritance tax to name two broad examples,’ James adds.

‘He’s never known real hardship,’ Farhana echoes, ‘what has he really gone through that he can understand the common person, or even try to understand?’

Another young Londoner who preferred not to be named, 18, adds: ‘Due to the cost of living crisis and inflation of prices many people now are wondering what the royal family do for the future of this country.’

James Main works with Labour for a Republic, a republican campaign group for the Labour Party (Picture: James Main)

Polls show that there is a generational divide when it comes to the monarchy (Picture: Reuters)

Dominic, a 17-year-old student living in Kent, says he is ‘overwhelmingly neutral’ when it comes to all things royal. ‘I have little interest in the royal family,’ he says.

Yet Dominic feels it’s too much ‘fuss’ to knock down the monarchy. Republicans are a tad ‘weird’, he adds.

‘However, I do not oppose the monarchy either,’ Dominic stresses, ‘despite the fact it would seem to conflict with other views I have that society needs to progress and change in a modern age.

‘My opinion on King Charles III in particular is similarly neutral. I have no reason to specifically admire him or dislike him.’

Dominic says that Charles seems to be setting himself apart from his predecessors by being more ‘opinionated, open and upfront’.

While his new role is a non-political one, Charles has long been clear about his commitment to climate and environmental issues.

He was once called the ‘dissident’ prince for writing to ministers on political matters in the 2000s.

‘It may be that he is trying to update the monarchy to participate in modern society, a concept which I can’t help but slightly admire, and may lead to me having a more positive opinion of him in the future if he does it well,’ Dominic says.

Nelson Okaroh-Dae says King Charles has the means to change what the royal family is and stands for (Picture: Nelson Okaroh-Dae)

The king, in the wake of Britain’s new Brexit deal, visited Germany for his first state trip abroad (Picture: Chris Jackson Collection/Getty Images)

‘Equally, he could mess something up and cause me to dislike him, but I prefer to take the optimistic view over the pessimistic one when I can choose either one.’

Nelson Okaroh-Dae, 24, a political student at the University of London (UCL) living in Perivale, isn’t as optimistic. The king has access to vast resources – if he wanted to enact change, Nelson says, he would.

‘Charles might be king but he’s no King. He hasn’t got the gall or the strength to make anything different for us,’ they say.

The Gen Zers say they all grew up with the queen – her face on banknotes and stamps.

Yes, they say, it’s odd that Charles’ face will be printed on them instead, but Nelson adds that young people have a lot on their minds these days.

‘We need to start with the monarchs,’ they say of how Britain needs to be changed for his generation, ‘then the lords, then the entire unrepresentative political system that’s allowed our generation to be stamped on, squeezed of our resources and time and dehumanised by think tanks and right-wing politicos.’

There aren’t a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the future ahead. James, however, is about one thing.

‘I’m pretty optimistic that support for the monarchy, particularly among young people, will continue to decrease and hopefully in the next 50 years or so,’ he says, ‘Britain will look totally different as a country.’

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‘I just don’t see the point of him.’