Broken skulls and more: Why Britain’s monarchs ended up in hospital

Fractures, migraines, falls from horseback – which simply did not happen to aristocrats. Prince Charles almost went blind!

While playing golf in 1991, the future King of Britain was hit in the head with a golf club as he played with his classmates. The accident resulted in a fractured skull. William, who was only eight years old at the time, was rushed to a London hospital, where he underwent an operation which lasted 70 minutes. After her, he stayed in the hospital for some time to recover. Prince William was left with a scar on his forehead to commemorate the incident.

In 2001, when Britain’s king was still called Prince Charles, he broke his shoulder in a fall from a horse while fox hunting. Charles fell to the ground when the horse suddenly jumped. At first he thought he had simply dislocated his shoulder, but an x-ray showed he had a small broken bone near his shoulder blade and he wore a bandage for several days. It wasn’t Charles’ only misadventure that year. When he sawed a tree in his garden, sawdust fell into his left eye, after which Charles was forced to appear in public in the form of a pirate – with a bandage.

By the way, the fall was not the first. In 1990, when he was 42, Charles broke his right arm in a fall while playing polo.

Queen Elizabeth II’s horseback ride once ended badly. It all happened in 1994, when she was 67 years old. Queen Elizabeth II was touring her estate at Sandringham as usual when her horse tripped, causing the two to fall. The queen broke her left wrist. At first, she also did not attach importance to the injury, believing that she had just struck. The fracture was not diagnosed until a day later.

Kate suffered from severe morning sickness during all three of her pregnancies, but when she first became pregnant and carried Prince George, the symptoms were so severe that the royal was even hospitalized. At the hospital, doctors put Kate on a drip to make sure the mother-to-be and baby weren’t dangerously dehydrated.

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Princess Eugenie had scoliosis, a curvature of her spine, and underwent an eight-hour operation to correct it when she was 12. A titanium plate was placed in the spine. After the operation, Evgenia spent three days in intensive care, a week in the ward and six days in a wheelchair.

Evgenia proudly showed off the scar on her back from this operation at her wedding, choosing a dress with a cutout on the back.

Due to a serious injury sustained during military training with Prince William, Prince Harry joined the military later than expected.

Harry tumbled down the stairs and knelt on a spike sticking out of the floor. Despite the pain, the prince continued through the obstacle course. This exercise ended with a jump in the water, then Harry discovered that his knee just wasn’t working.

“My leg just wasn’t working. When I got out of the water and took off my wetsuit, Will looked down and turned pale. Blood spurted from my knee, the doctors immediately came running. The palace informed me that my enlistment in the army would be delayed. For an indefinite period,” Harry recalled the incident in his memoirs.

He also noted that the Palace press office told reporters at the time that Harry had injured his knee while playing rugby.

Compared to her royal relatives, the Duchess of Sussex is practically a model of health – there have been no complaints or serious incidents involving her. But Megan once revealed that she had been hospitalized with a migraine before being treated with acupuncture.

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