The Hidden Talent You Didn't Know King Charles Has

Much has been written about what King Charles III supposedly likes to do for fun when not tending to his royal duties, such as the monarch's penchant for gardening and his love of skiing — even though King Charles III broke a 45-year tradition, out of caution, by giving it up due to his advanced age. On that note, though, despite being a bit on the older side, His Majesty is still finding ways to surprise even diehard royal watchers. For example, while his love of the arts is well documented, Charles' talent for painting with watercolors as a hobby still came as a surprise to some. Even more shocking, however, is the fact that the King of England can apparently bust out a ukulele solo at a moment's notice. 

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As reported by The Telegraph, the Loughries Men's Shed Ukulele Ensemble were given the chance to play for Charles during his and Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles' visit to Northern Ireland in May 2026. But the king briefly flipped the script when he was given a ukulele of his own to play, and happily obliged. His Majesty also gamely joked around with several members of the musical group, further endearing himself to them. 

"It's such a great instrument. Do you remember the words? Wait 'til you get to my age," Charles quipped. Funnily enough, though, this isn't even the first time that the monarch has played the unusual instrument in public. Charles, then just the Prince of Wales, memorably played a makeshift ukulele crafted from a piece of wood and an empty margarine tub during a visit to the Dairy Crest creamery in England in Summer 2011.

King Charles III is hardly the only member of the royal family with a hidden talent or two up his sleeve. His Majesty's late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, served as a mechanic during World War II; Charles' eldest son, Prince William, is shockingly good at juggling; and his niece, Princess Eugenie, is quite the art enthusiast in her own right. But while watching Charles strum away on a ukulele probably seems unusual on the surface, the fact that he knows his way around a fretboard shouldn't come as that much of a shock, given his own love for the arts has long extended to playing music.

The monarch has played both the piano and the trumpet, though he was arguably most proficient with the cello in his younger years. "I remember playing in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and trying to practice in my room at Cambridge to an old record conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who was the great conductor in those days, in the '60s," then-Prince Charles shared on "The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed" in 2021 (via People). "There was me sitting with my cello and my tuning fork, and I put this thing on, and of course he took it at an incredible lick — you've no idea how fast!"

Indeed, the photo above, of Charles playing the cello, was taken in his room at Cambridge University in 1967, when he was around 19 years old. One of His Majesty's more recent public displays involving the cello came in early 1988, when he played alongside students at the Victorian College of the Arts  in Melbourne, Australia.