Thomas, King of the British

Thomas
Head of the Commonwealth Head of the British Armed Forces
King of the British and of the People of his other Realms
Reign	15 January 1997 - 1 August 2019
Coronation	17 December 1997
Predecessor	Charles III
Successor	Alexandra
Prime Ministers	See list John Major Tony Blair Gordon Brown David Cameron Theresa May
Born	(1960-12-17) 17 December 1960 Balmoral Castle, Scotland
Spouse	Christy Turlington (m. 1995)
Issue	William Carter Jacqueline Carter Queen Alexandra Prince Richard Princess Nicole Princess Elle Princess Vivian
Full name Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles
House	Hanover
Father	Charles III
Mother	Lauren Bacall
Religion	Protestant
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	1981-1997 (active service)
Rank	Admiral of the Fleet
Battles/wars	Falklands War Multinational Force in Lebanon Gulf War

Thomas (English: Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles; German: Thomas Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Albrecht Carl; born 17 December 1960) was King of the British from 15 January 1997 to 1 August 2019.

A decorated naval aviator with the Royal Navy, Thomas's two-decades-long military career was marked by his involvement in several notable conflicts, namely the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina and the Gulf War in which a US-led coalition successfully repelled Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein from neighbouring Kuwait. Meanwhile, under the alias "Charles T. Lawrence", Thomas also enjoyed a successful acting career in Hollywood, having starred in a number of critically acclaimed films including Out of Africa, Top Gun, The Untouchables, Sleepless in Seattle, As Good as It Gets, You've Got Mail, and Love Actually. Considered to be one of the greatest British actors of all time and highly renowned for his versatility and charismatic presence, Thomas, whose films have collectively grossed over $4.76 billion worldwide, is the recipient of six British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, which includes currently having the most or joint-most Best Actor awards won at each of the three major awards ceremonies. In addition, at 29 years and 94 days old, Thomas was and remains the youngest Best Actor winner at the Academy Awards to date, having won the award for his portrayal of the DC Comics superhero Batman in the 1989 titular film.

Since his retirement from acting, Thomas has begun a new career as a filmmaker under the company Atlantic Lens, having so far directed and produced the critically acclaimed BBC One miniseries The Sea Wolf starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Admiral Thomas Cochrane and another BBC One miniseries The Napoleon of Crime starring Andrew Scott as Professor Moriarty. On both occasions, he won the Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the Primetime Emmy Awards. In addition to these works, Thomas also served as the producer of the Netflix documentary The Patriots: America's Greatest Sporting Dynasty, the 2021 biographical drama Albion: Against All Odds, and helped co-direct The Year of Spectacular Men, a comedy-drama starring Zoey Deutch and his own son, Prince Richard, as the romantic leads, followed by the spy thriller Progeny, which he produced, directed, and also starred in alongside Deutch, for which he won Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards while also being nominated for the same award at both the Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards.

In January 1997, Thomas ascended to the throne upon his father's abdication. In his early years, he came to acquire a reputation as a vocal figure for reform in the United Kingdom with his most notable success in that regard being the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 which lifted restrictions on marriages to Roman Catholics, instituted absolute primogeniture, and, most notably, abolished the longstanding restrictions on Roman Catholics being monarchs. Moreover, the notable passage of the Church of England Act 1998 resulted in the formal disestablishment of the Church of England, making Thomas the last monarch to serve as supreme governor since King Henry VIII separated England from the Holy See.

Meanwhile, on the international stage, Thomas was also an instrumental figure behind the independence of East Timor and the unification of the island of New Guinea under Papua New Guinea, two events that later saw him receive the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize award together with Indonesian President B. J. Habibie, whom he met in several closed-door meetings in the wake of his predecessor Suharto's downfall to advocate for the East Timorese and Papuan causes. In the meantime, Thomas's twenty-two-year reign came to include a number of notable events, namely the cession of Hong Kong to China, the Great Recession, and several referendums concerning voting methods, Scottish independence, and membership in the European Union. In August 2019, following a health crisis a few years prior, Thomas abdicated the throne in favour of his daughter who subsequently ascended to the throne as Queen Alexandra. Following his abdication, Thomas has since come to devote himself to both philanthropic and entrepreneurial causes, including a growing business in filmmaking and sports.

In 1995, Thomas married the American supermodel Christy Turlington, making him the first British monarch to marry a Roman Catholic following the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995. Together, the couple have five children, including the reigning Queen Alexandra. Prior to this, Thomas was in a relationship with the American actress Lynda Carter, with whom he had two children in total, namely Sir William Carter, one of the world's most well-known and successful professional footballers, and Dame Jacqueline Carter, a former BBC journalist currently serving as leader of the United Kingdom's Liberal Democrats and Leader of the Opposition.

As one of the major shareholders of the multi-billion dollar holding company Atlantic Connection, Thomas is estimated to be worth around $35 billion, making him one of the richest monarchs in the world. Since 1988, Thomas has been the sole owner of the National Football League franchise New England Patriots. Under his ownership, the franchise has gone on to win a total of eleven Super Bowl titles, the most of any team in the league's history, with head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady being central figures to their success, particularly as the New England Patriots became the first and only NFL team to have won the Super Bowl thrice in a row along with having both the highest regular season and playoff win percentages respectively. As of current, since 1988, Thomas is the second-longest serving NFL owner behind Virginia Halas McCaskey, owner of the Chicago Bears since 1983. In 2018, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Early Life

Born on 17 December 1960, Thomas was the eldest child of King Charles III and the American actress Lauren Bacall. Christened Thomas William Frederick Francis Albert Charles upon his birth, his given name was derived from the Republican politician and New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, a two-time presidential nominee and who is both his godfather and a close friend of his father's. On the other hand, his middle names were reportedly chosen in honour of his maternal grandfather William Perske, the American singer Frank Sinatra, and his own father himself.

The American actress Katharine Hepburn in the 1955 romantic drama Summertime. A highly-accomplished actress and formerly a love interest of Thomas's father, Hepburn is generally considered to be one of Thomas's acting idols and was a close maternal figure of his growing up.

Soon after his birth, Thomas, being his father's heir apparent to the throne was immediately made Duke of Cornwall, which lasted until January 1st the following year, when he was then formally made Prince of Wales by his father's behest. Mirroring that of his own father's upbringing, Thomas's upbringing in Buckingham Palace was reportedly said to have been somewhat restrictive in the early years, as a consequence of fringe rumours espousing harmful plots targeting the royal family. Nevertheless, the prince was able to benefit from the more modern and liberal parenting style of his parents, with his father in particular emphasising qualities of "individuality, self-dependent, and survivability" in the young prince, while his mother generally added onto the efforts of Thomas's father in "liberalising" the young heir to the throne.

As his parents had previously been involved in the Hollywood industry as actors themselves, Thomas also grew up with a firm passion for American movies and films, an interest helped by his parents' convenient associations with various Hollywood celebrities. At the same time, he also became fond of locally-made British films as well with the famed English actress Audrey Hepburn reportedly being his favorite actress. Somewhat coincidentally, in 1955, Hepburn herself had married into the British royal family by marrying Thomas's first cousin once removed Prince Charles, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Meanwhile, owing to his parents' close association with the American actress Katharine Hepburn who had consistently been a close friend of the royal couple and also the prince's own godmother, Thomas would also occasionally spend some time living under the actress's care at her family residence in Fenwick, Connecticut where he later recounted in his memoirs exploring various type of sports including tennis, archery, golf, and swimming under the tutelage of the notoriously athletic Hepburn whom Thomas has also come to credit for shaping his somewhat liberal worldview that was later exemplified by his vocal support for same-sex marriage and very vocal insistence on abolishing the longstanding restriction on marriages between members of the British royal family and Roman Catholics. In this, the mother-son bond between Thomas and Hepburn was deemed to be so strong that, by Thomas's own admission, whenever he was staying with the actress at her Connecticut residence, he would be occasionally mistaken by some locals as Hepburn's son despite the actress herself never having had any children of her own. Later on, prior to her passing in June 2003, Hepburn was said to have bequeathed the ownership of her family home to Thomas, given that he spent some time growing up there, although he only officially assumed the ownership of the property following the subsequent death of his father, whom Hepburn initially entrusted with the maintenance of her family home in the event of her eventual passing. Since then, Thomas has come to describe the house as a "second home" for his own family who are said to have often loved spending their holidays there given its relative isolation from the general public, thereby giving them much-needed space and privacy as public figures.

Following the birth of Thomas's eldest daughter Jacqueline Carter in 1982, some media outlets have begun noting the apparent physical similarities between Carter and Katharine Hepburn, with whom his daughter is said to have shared a similarly diamond-shaped face, a high set of cheekbones, and a slim build. To that end, during an interview where he acknowledged the aforementioned similarities, Thomas admitted to finding the physical similarities between his daughter and the American actress "slightly eerie" at first before ultimately embracing them later on, adding that the late Hepburn herself found the similarities "amusing" and, in turn, greatly doted on the young Jacqueline who, in one of her first interviews following her jump into politics, spoke of the actress being one of her main inspirations while growing up.

Adulthood

Military Career

In 1981, Thomas attended the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, after which he was subsequently commissioned as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. However, given that his royal status meant that he was largely kept away from active combat, Thomas instead used his commission in the Royal Navy to venture to multiple countries around the world including Canada, Brazil, Madagascar, India, Singapore, and Japan. Eventually, in 1982, with the onset of the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina, an opportunity for the prince to see his first active combat in the years since he was commissioned in the Royal Navy finally came about. However, the controversial decision to have Thomas on board the British task force sent to the Falkland Islands was initially met with considerable opposition by both the prince's father King Charles III and then-Prime Minister Edward Heath, both of whom were said to have opposed the prince's involvement in the conflict out of the need to protect the heir to the British throne. However, after a brief but overall contentious argument between Thomas himself and the prime minister, it was ultimately decided that the prince would be allowed to set sail on board the task force headed for the Falkland Islands in exchange for him agreeing to be under strict supervision by a senior Royal Navy officer whose main priority was to immediately evacuate the British royal to safety in the case of emergency.

Nonetheless, with the conclusion of the war, Thomas was subsequently granted his first promotion as an officer in the Royal Navy, having been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Then, he subsequently joined an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which earned him another promotion, this time to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Later, from 1990 to 1991, Thomas would see his final active combat experience as a Royal Navy officer when he was deployed to the Middle East as part of an international coalition force, which in the span of a few months, managed to successfully push Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein out of neighbouring Kuwait. For his actions during the conflict, he was promoted to the rank of Commodore. Eventually, shortly after his ascension to the throne, Thomas promptly resigned his commission in the Royal Navy although he was later made a Lord High Admiral as the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy during his reign, after which, upon his abdication, he was later made an honorary Admiral of the Fleet. In 2014, he personally helped found the biannual Invictus Games, an international multi-sport event that, according to the monarch, "demonstrates the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation, and demonstrate life beyond disability", while adding that after having seen combat himself, he thus sought to ensure that injured troops would not be forgotten, stating, "For every soldier, the risk of injury is ever-present and one that most of them could not realistically escape from, be it on the battlefield or otherwise. Nonetheless, for those unlucky enough to come across an injury of any kind while serving their country, it is imperative that the government and all other relevant parties work together to ensure that these men and women still have much to do even after they were struck by injuries for they are not and should not be the end of everything".

Owing to his past career in the armed forces, during the production of Top Gun, Thomas was thus the only cast member with actual military experience, namely as a naval aviator with the Royal Navy. To that end, it was later revealed by Thomas in a subsequent interview that during breaks between scenes, as an experienced fighter pilot himself, he occasionally took his fellow castmates Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Meg Ryan on joyrides in the sky onboard the film's real-life Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, thereby making him an immediate favourite among his fellow castmates. Meanwhile, having retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Commodore, an OF-6 rank in NATO terms, some have thus argued that Thomas is the joint-most decorated Hollywood actor with a military career alongside the late James Stewart, a brigadier general, also an OF-6 rank, with a fairly distinguished career during the Second World War whereas Thomas mostly saw combat in the Falklands War and Gulf War conflicts respectively.

Acting Career

A scene from the 1989 superhero film Batman depicting Thomas as the titular superhero character opposite Jack Nicholson who portrays The Joker, Batman's infamous archnemesis.

Having been exposed to the acting industry from an early age by his parents, both of whom were former actors, and also by the influential and successful American actress Katharine Hepburn, in preparation for adulthood, Thomas took up private acting lessons with the eventual hope of becoming a successful actor in his own right with his early inspirations and idols being Cary Grant, Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper. Meanwhile, in order to hone his acting skills, Thomas went to the recently established Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, United States where he was taught in method acting in which actors seek to bring out expressive performances by connecting with their characters' emotions and purposes in a story. Meanwhile, it was also during this period that, in order to conceal his true identity, he adopted the alias of "Charles T. Lawrence" in which his given name refers to his own father, while his surname is a tribute to the British actor Laurence Olivier, whom Thomas greatly idolised as a newcomer in the acting industry, and the middle name "T" was simply a reference to his actual first name "Thomas". To that end, in 1980, at twenty years old, Thomas made his debut in the teen comedy film The Hollywood Knights opposite Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer, both of whom also made their acting debut in the film. Upon being met with immediate applause for his film debut, in the following year, Thomas took the lead role in the action comedy film Stripes which revolved around a couple of misfits who joined the American military, a role that later earned him his first nomination at the Academy Awards. Then, in 1983, after a brief one-year hiatus, Thomas returned to star in The Outsiders in which he portrayed Ponyboy Curtis, the younger brother of Darrel Curtis who was portrayed by Patrick Swayze. In the following year, Thomas starred in the Alan Parker-directed drama film Birdy opposite Nicolas Cage, followed by a starring role in the 1984 epic historical drama The Bounty as the sailor Fletcher Christian, a role that later won him his first accolade, namely for Best Actor, at the British Academy Film Awards. Then, in the following year, aside from starring in the romantic drama Out of Africa opposite Meryl Streep, a film that subsequently won him Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards, Thomas also appeared in the action film Top Gun alongside the likes of Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, and Val Kilmer where he played the relatively minor role of Lieutenant Michael "Bulldog" Lawrence whose nickname is a reference to the British bulldog breed which is considered a British national animal.

In 1987, Thomas was paired alongside James Bond actor Sean Connery in the crime film The Untouchables where he portrayed the real-life Prohibition agent Eliot Ness who famously brought down the notorious mobster Al Capone portrayed in the film by Robert De Niro. In this, his portrayal of Ness subsequently earned him nominations at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. During a later interview, Thomas said that he did not bother not winning an award for his role in the film given that his participation was merely so he could pair up with the famous Sean Connery, whom Thomas admired for his role as the British spy James Bond, but nonetheless considered the film to be his "finest work" yet, adding how, in preparation for the role, he trained extensively to develop an authentic "Chicago accent" along with replicating the mannerisms of the 1920s with the utmost authenticity in order to properly embody the role. In that same year, Thomas also starred in the neo-noir thriller No Way Out where he portrayed a US Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell. Then, in 1988, Thomas starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, his highest-grossing film to date with roughly $914 million made at the box office and which also won him Best Supporting Actor at the British Academy Film Awards in the process. Buoyed by this success, Thomas was later cast by director Tim Burton to portray the DC Comics superhero Batman in 1989's Batman, a role he later reprised for its 1992 sequel Batman Returns and which also won him Best Actor at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, thus making him currently the youngest Best Actor winner at the Academy Awards at the age of 29 years and 94 days. However, for reasons that reportedly included creative differences, Thomas did not reprise the role and was instead replaced by Val Kilmer for Batman Forever. Nonetheless, at twenty-nine years old, Thomas was and remains the youngest actor to have portrayed the superhero character on screen. Meanwhile, in between the two Batman films, Thomas reunited with Sean Connery to portray Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October while also starring opposite Annette Bening in Regarding Henry, two films that later won him nominations at the Academy Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards respectively.

The American actress Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle as Annie Reed. Considered widely to be Thomas's most famous co-star, the two were later paired as romantic interest again in You've Got Mail and Kate & Leopold and were popularly nicknamed "Megmas" by media outlets.

Entering the 1990s, after appearing in the legal drama film A Few Good Men opposite Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson, his co-star from Batman, Thomas made another appearance in the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle alongside Meg Ryan as Sam Baldwin, a recently-widowed architect who came to be fancied by Ryan's character Annie Reed, a role that later won him Best Actor at the Academy Awards while also earning him praise from critics for his "instant chemistry" with Ryan, whom he previously starred with in Top Gun. The following year, Thomas appeared alongside his future sister-in-law Jodie Foster in the western comedy film Maverick as Bret Maverick, a role that saw him further win Best Actor at the British Academy Film Awards, while also making an appearance in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral alongside fellow British actor Hugh Grant. In 1995, having seemingly confirmed his shift towards the romantic comedy genre, Thomas appeared as a supporting character in Sense and Sensibility alongside Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as Edward Ferrars, a role that earned him nominations at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards that same year. Then, in 1996, Thomas portrayed the Hungarian aristocrat and aviator László Almásy in the romantic war drama The English Patient, earning him nominations for Best Actor at the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards and, in the following year, the year that he was to ascend to the throne following his father's abdication, Thomas starred opposite Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets, a romantic comedy where his role as a misanthropic best-selling romance novelist, despite being considered by many to be a departure from his previous rom-com roles, was met with critical acclaim and later even rewarded Thomas with the award of Best Actor at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards, all in the same year, the only time that he ever achieved such a feat in his career.

By that point, despite having officially announced his retirement from acting, Thomas subsequently announced that he would appear in one final film. To that end, after initial speculation, he reunited with Ryan in You've Got Mail, a film that subsequently won him Best Actor win at both the Academy Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. Following this, Thomas went on to return to the big screen a few more times, namely for Richard Curtis's 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, thereby reuniting him with fellow British actors Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, its 2017 sequel Red Nose Day Actually, and the 2001 romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, for which he was paired for the third and final time with Meg Ryan and portrayed a 19th-century aristocrat who time-travels to the 21st-century. In this, during a subsequent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Thomas revealed that he only starred in the film after Ryan personally asked for his participation, having felt that Thomas would naturally suit the role of Leopold in the film given his royal background which complemented the pre-existing on-screen familiarity between the two. For this, Thomas later won Best Actor at both the Golden Globe Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, after which, given his regnal duties, Thomas, barring his appearance in the 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, mostly stayed out of acting for roughly a decade before returning to the big screen in the 2016 historical drama Jackie, his first feature film in thirteen years.

As a close friend of the Kennedy family, Thomas also starred in the 2016 biographical drama Jackie opposite Natalie Portman who portrayed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy while Thomas portrayed his late father, who, in the days following the assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy, personally visited the Parkland Memorial Hospital and bonded with a distressed Jacqueline Kennedy, whom Thomas himself met at the mere age of three. To that end, as the only cast member with a firsthand account of the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, Thomas, in addition to portraying his father, was thus given the unique privilege of directing some of the film's scenes, particularly those involving Charles III and Jacqueline Kennedy, effectively making him a de facto co-director to some extent alongside Chilean-born Pablo Larraín, with Larraín later praising Thomas for his "incredible memory of the events that happened in the film" and his "meticulous and dramatic approach to the most impactful and powerful scenes". For his performance in the film, in which critics lauded his "emotionally powerful" portrayal and ability to accurately portray his "larger-than-life" late father, Thomas subsequently won Best Supporting Actor at the British Academy Film Awards while Portman won Best Actress at both the British Academy Film Awards and the Academy Awards. In this, the spouses of their characters, namely President John F. Kennedy and Queen Lauren, were portrayed by Caspar Phillipson and Charlize Theron respectively.

Reception

The English actor Hugh Grant, pictured at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Known widely for his roles in romantic comedies, throughout the 1990s, Grant was often seen as Thomas's acting rival, given their similar British heritage and Thomas's own pivot to romantic comedies that decade.

Considered to be one of the greatest and most talented British actors of all time, with a career that saw him experiment with both the action and romantic comedy genres, Thomas has been the subject of much praise for his versatility and commitment to his roles with critics particular reserving praise for his ability to seamlessly transition between different roles for different movies. In this, Brian De Palma, who directed Thomas in The Untouchables, praised the royal for his "sheer dedication" in embracing his character, noting how the latter spent months perfecting a "Chicago accent" for his role in the film in which he played the Chicago-born Prohibition agent Eliot Ness to much critical acclaim. Meanwhile, in addition to his talent and professionalism, despite his upbringing and background, Thomas has also come to be known for his somewhat "easy-going" and "approachable" persona. In this, American actress Meg Ryan, with whom he established a famous rom-com partnership that spanned across three movies, has spoke of Thomas being an "absolute charm" on set, stating, "Most of the time, he's quite driven and passionate about the film that he is in, the kind of person who you could catch being almost glued to their seat and reading the script like it's the Bible. However, based on my personal experience, if you feel like talking about something lengthy with him then as long as he's not obviously busy at any moment, you can just say hello and if the topic's interesting enough, you could be talking about it for an hour or more with him". Similarly, English actress Keira Knightley, who worked with Thomas on Love Actually when she was just seventeen and now enjoys a platonic friendship with the latter's son, also spoke of Thomas being "quite a gentleman", noting that while the film's scenes did not have the actress "doing anything too far", Thomas, being a father of seven, the eldest of whom is only six years older than Knightley, naturally developed paternal instincts and thus looked after the teenage actress just in case, a gesture that Knightley later described as one that she would never forget.

Owing to his similarly good looks and British nationality, coupled with his transition to romantic comedies during the 1990s, for a while, Thomas was often compared to fellow British actor Hugh Grant, a well-known star in romantic comedies himself. Officially, the two first crossed paths when they were both included in the Richard Curtis-written Four Weddings and a Funeral and later in both Love Actually and its sequel Red Nose Day Actually, both of which are also directed and written by Richard Curtis. In the meantime, owing to their apparent similarities, the two promptly became subjects of constant comparison by media outlets who often speculated about a private but intense rivalry between the two stars. In this, the strongest rumours allege that Thomas narrowly beat out Grant for the role of Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility while Grant, in turn, reportedly prevailed over Thomas for the lead role in Notting Hill in which he starred opposite Julia Roberts, with whom Thomas had previously starred himself in My Best Friend's Wedding. Later on, Thomas described the supposed rivalry between him and Grant as "nothing more than the usual competition between two talented actors that tabloids expectedly exaggerated", stating, "Personally, while my opinions, particularly those concerning actors who are seemingly stuck playing one type of character only, might be somewhat negative, given that it otherwise made him famous and relevant, I have nothing but praise for Hugh for doing what he does best for as long as he enjoyed it".

In a 2023 interview with BBC News, Thomas claimed that at one point, following the retirement of Roger Moore, he was briefly offered the chance to play the famous spy character James Bond, a role that, despite some strong inclinations, he ultimately rejected, citing personal reasons. Despite this, Thomas later starred alongside the inaugural James Bond actor Sean Connery in two films, namely The Untouchables and The Hunt for Red October, while his sister Catherine starred in Disobedience and Black Widow alongside Rachel Weisz, the wife of the most recent James Bond actor Daniel Craig, with whom she also later starred in Knives Out. Otherwise, having previously portrayed Batman in Batman and Batman Returns, his daughter-in-law Anne Hathaway later starred as Batman's love interest Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, the final entry to Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight trilogy" opposite English actor Christian Bale as the DC Comics superhero, while his son-in-law Henry Cavill, having famously portrayed another DC Comics character Superman in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League, starred alongside Tom Cruise, his Top Gun co-star, in Mission: Impossible – Fallout as CIA assassin August Walker, and his former partner Lynda Carter, in another DC Comics connection, famously portrayed Wonder Woman in the 1970s series of the same name. Meanwhile, both Catherine and Hathaway later starred together in Ocean's 8, the 2018 heist comedy film in which Thomas's son, whom Hathaway herself is married to, made a cameo appearance as himself. In addition, Zoey Deutch, the fiance of his younger son Richard, starred in Dirty Grandpa alongside Robert De Niro, Thomas's opposite in The Untouchables as real-life mobster Al Capone, before starring alongside her own fiance in The Year of Spectacular Men, which Thomas co-directed alongside Deutch's mother Lea Thompson, and later alongside Thomas himself afterward in the spy thriller Progeny where she portrayed FBI agent Margaret "Maggie" Montgomery, the daughter of Thomas's character, former MI6 agent William Montgomery.

Reign

Reforms & Projects

The Middlesex Guildhall in London, England, where the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is based since its foundation in 2009.

Upon his father's abdication in January 1997, Thomas automatically ascended to the throne. Despite his longstanding ceremonial status, Thomas, in a manner similar to that of his father and predecessor Charles III, also partook to some degree in the country's political affairs while largely adhering to his position as a constitutional monarch. Among others, the most notable instance was the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995, a law that was actually passed roughly two years prior to his ascension to the throne, but in which Thomas himself had a rather prominent role in shaping it. Spurred by the opposition against his marriage to his Catholic-born wife, Thomas, in conjunction with several sympathetic politicians, campaigned for the removal of the longstanding restrictions on marriages between members of the royal family and Roman Catholic individuals, which he famously called an "immoral relic of the past" while also arguing that it would clash with the modernising image of the United Kingdom, particularly one that will host an ever-increasing number of religious minorities.

Meanwhile, in addressing concerns over the potential of having a Catholic monarch due to the lifting of the restrictions, Thomas asserted that the British monarch, as per longstanding convention, will generally remain an Anglican Protestant regardless of marriage to a Roman Catholic spouse, stating, "There's a clear and implicit difference between marrying a Catholic and being a Catholic, which I hope Parliament will soon realise and therefore take it upon themselves to correct this grievous injustice in a modern and increasingly tolerant country". Nonetheless, the bill itself was later followed by another landmark bill that amended the Act of Succession 1701 once more, namely by effectively removing the longstanding prohibition on Roman Catholic monarchs, thus legally allowing Thomas or any members of the royal family to be of either the Roman Catholic or Protestant faiths as long as they, by virtue of the bill's provisions, remain in the Christian faith and hold British citizenship. In the meantime, absolute primogeniture was also instituted, thereby ensuring that the next monarch is chosen purely based on seniority rather than gender, thus leading to the subsequent ascension of his daughter as the first British queen regnant in three centuries. However, despite the lifting of longstanding restrictions on Roman Catholics being monarchs, Franz von Bayern, the current head of the House of Wittelsbach and pretender to the British throne according to the Jacobite succession, was not immediately proclaimed as the new monarch on the basis that the changes in succession laws did not disqualify members of the ruling House of Hanover from holding the throne but rather simply expanded the pool to include those disqualified by their Roman Catholic faith. On his part, while welcoming the dramatic reforms, Franz publicly expressed his ambivalence about potentially assuming the throne, stating, "Ultimately, what happened a few centuries ago is what it is and does not concern me any longer. Now, even if Roman Catholics are allowed to sit on the throne again, thus making me the likely new monarch, I believe that the current line of rulers has done well to serve their nation as figureheads as the people demanded of them. Moreover, as a German citizen, my allegiance is to Germany rather than the United Kingdom".

In his advocacy for the basic principles of separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judiciary, Thomas was also a vocal figure calling for the establishment of a "supreme court", having once said, "As fine as everyone seems to be with it right now, does it not feel a little weird that all the supreme judicial stuff is being done by one half of the legislative branch rather than by the judicial branch itself". In this, Thomas proposed that each of the United Kingdom's five constituent countries, namely England, Scotland, Wales, Hanover, and Ireland be represented by one justice on the country's apex court while the chief justice would normally be from England. In addition, having learned from the politicisation of the United States Supreme Court, Thomas also proposed that the process of nominating justices should not involve elected parliamentarians, stating, "It is a basic and undeniable fact that every politician, man or woman, in the House of Commons have their own vested interest which might or might not be good for the nation and the people as a whole. Thus, to even let them have a say in how the country's highest court should be run or how it should look ideologically is therefore absolutely dangerous and would only serve to weaken the country's democracy rather than bolstering it while also irreparably politicising the country's judicial system like how the Americans did". Eventually, on 1 October 2009, via the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the United Kingdom Supreme Court was formally established and, despite not adopting the King's "one country, one justice" proposal, did make it that rather than being elected by lawmakers such as in the United States whose senators vote to confirm a new justice nominated by the president, an incoming justice would instead be nominated by an independent commission, followed by the Justice Secretary accepting or rejecting the nomination, which can only be done once, before later being officially appointed to the court by the issuing of letters patent by the nonarch. Moreover, unlike their American counterparts who are appointed for life, British justices are required to retire upon reaching the current mandated age of seventy-five as a countermeasure against deliberate appointments of young justices for potentially political purposes.

The Irish Sea Bridge, a long structure connecting the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Financed entirely by the British government, it was first opened in 2007 and connects the town of Fishguard, Wales to the town of Rosslare Harbour, Ireland.

A proponent of aggressive economic spending, Thomas has also actively called for the construction of "smart" and "useful" megaprojects via the Albion Investment Fund, the country's sovereign wealth fund, having once famously remarked during a 1993 BBC interview, "The overall wealth of the United Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund is currently in the hundreds of billions which could only rise to even a trillion in the near future. With the Cold War now essentially over, this level of wealth should be fully unleashed and not for building more nukes or superweapons but rather infrastructure that will benefit the entire British people regardless of where they are from or where they currently live". To that end, just a few months after the Channel Tunnel linking Great Britain and mainland Europe was opened in 1994, Thomas, in conjunction with newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, began an ambitious "Irish Sea Bridge" project with the aim of connecting the islands of Great Britain and Ireland which together form the British Isles. Officially started in 1999, the project, officially named "Celtic Crossing", was formally opened on 15 February 2007 to a final cost of £23 billion, thereby connecting the ports of Fishguard in Wales and Rosslare in Ireland. During the ensuing opening ceremony, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan simultaneously drove over the bridge from their respective ends before coming to a halt in the middle, a symbolic gesture intended to symbolise the newfound physical connection between the two islands that were previously separated at large by the Irish Sea. During the ensuing inauguration ceremony, in officially opening the bridge, Thomas declared, "For centuries, the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, along with its respective people who share a deep connection and history, have been physically separated from each other by nature for generations. Now, the advancement of technology allows these very same people to finally connect and reunite with each other physically, something that will hopefully last forever".

In 1999, as part of a series of reforms undertaken by the newly-elected prime minister Tony Blair, Police England and Wales came into being as a result of a merger of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales which included the well-known Metropolitan Police which generally policed the ceremonial county of Greater London. In line with this, the simultaneously defunct rank of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the Metropolitan Police and generally considered to be the highest in British policing, was reformed and renamed to "Chief Police Commissioner of the United Kingdom" and made the head of the United Kingdom Police Force, a directorate comprising all four of the country's national police forces, namely Police England and Wales, Police Scotland, Garda Síochána, and Police Hanover with the main aim of coordinating activities and responses between the four organisations which are each led by a chief constable.

Disestablishment of the Church of England

In the lead-up to the 1997 United Kingdom general election, which took place just several months into Thomas's reign as monarch, the opposing Labour Party, together with the Hanoverian Union Party, ran on a centrist platform that included a series of reforms which, among others, included a potential disestablishment of the Church of England, England's established church and to which Thomas, as the British monarch, is tied via his role as the Supreme Governor. Consequently, while not necessarily a theocratic state, together with Denmark and Greece, the United Kingdom is one of only a few European countries to officially have a state religion, something that the former King Charles III himself reportedly criticised, especially given that other European monarchies, namely the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Norway, and Sweden do not have state religions despite also being constitutional monarchies. In addition, the growing population of Roman Catholics, the majority of whom are concentrated in the constituent country of Ireland, also raised questions about the feasibility of a continuing Protestant state religion.

Eventually, in February 1998, following an expected Labour victory at the polls a year earlier that saw Tony Blair elected prime minister, the Hanoverian Union Party's Laurenz Aumann, whose party had entered into a confidence and supply agreement with the Labour Party on the premise of subsequently debating and potentially realising the disestablishment of the Church of England, brought forth what later came to be the Church of England Act 1998 that, after much intense debate and even considerable public commentary from the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, was subsequently passed by a firm majority in the House of Commons. Then, upon reaching the House of Lords, where twenty-five of the six hundred seats are explicitly reserved for the Lords Spiritual, a select group of bishops of the Church of England, the bill was once again met with considerable attention and scrutiny but was eventually passed, albeit by a narrow majority, and was subsequently granted royal assent by Thomas himself, thereby marking the end of the Church of England as an established church for almost four centuries long while also seemingly confirming the United Kingdom as a secular state in line with the growing trend among its religious demographics. To that end, the title of Defender of the Faith, first granted in 1521 by Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII, was consequently discontinued, effectively signifying the secularisation of the British monarchy. Meanwhile, despite being allowed to remain as the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, together with twenty-four other bishops, were also officially disqualified from sitting in the House of Lords in their capacity as the Lords Spiritual, a title that was itself abolished with their reserved twenty-five seats being given to and filled by crossbenchers at the next rearrangement of seats in the House of Lords.

Later, in August 2017, shortly after announcing his planned abdication within two years, Thomas publicly expressed his wish that his daughter and successor Alexandra, in a first for British history, have a civil ceremony rather than a religious one given that the British monarch is no longer formally associated with the Church of England save for a longstanding requirement to be of the Protestant faith in order to succeed to the throne. Such an idea was later realised when, in the absence of a coronation, a civil investiture ceremony for Alexandra instead took place in October 2019 at the Parliament Complex. Conducted by the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the ceremony saw the Queen pledge to "uphold the principles of the rule of law, representative democracy, the separation of powers, as well as ethnic, linguistic, racial, and religious inclusiveness" during which she also signed an accession oath, thereby formalising her status as monarch. In addition, unlike the religious nature of past coronations, its otherwise secular nature saw the participation of the leaders of all of the United Kingdom's major religious faiths including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.

Developments in East and Southeast Asia

On 1 July 1997, just several months into his reign as king, Thomas would personally be at the forefront of a monumental event in history with the British colony of Hong Kong, as per a 99-year lease agreed upon between the United Kingdom and Qing China, was to be officially handed back to China which is now currently administered by the Chinese Communist Party. To that end, a handover ceremony took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre where, in a move that surprised many observers, Thomas himself attended the ceremony as the British monarch while accompanied by his brother Nelson, newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair, outgoing Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten, and Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie. In a major highlight of the ceremony, Thomas himself read out a prepared speech bidding farewell to the native Hong Kong population while also wishing them well under the new administration of the Chinese government via the "one country, two systems" policy. Later, in recent times, amidst increasing tensions between the two countries, anonymous sources have claimed that Thomas "detested" the whole occasion and instead preferred a fully democratic and fledgling capitalistic Hong Kong independent of any sovereign nation's control in any shape or form. Adding further, the sources also claimed that Thomas "breathed a huge sigh of relief" and "immediately drank a bottle of whiskey" right after the aircraft carrying the British monarch and his entourage left Hong Kong's airspace, adding, "The King was very relieved to be on his way back home after having to sit through an excruciating boastful display of communist pride and power right in front of his own two eyes". Nonetheless, in the wake of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, Thomas has vocally criticised the Chinese government for their "creeping violation and betrayal of the founding principles of Hong Kong's independence", adding, "The United Kingdom did not cede Hong Kong for it to essentially become a Chinese province or territory where they could do anything they want but rather a free and autonomous nation with its own set of laws and regulations free from Chinese interference". In response, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi publicly criticised Thomas's remarks, describing them as the "usual foreign meddling and interference in Chinese domestic matters".

The Indonesian politician B. J. Habibie taking the oath as the third President of Indonesia. The successor to longtime strongman Suharto, Habibie's presidency was later marked by the independence of East Timor and Western New Guinea, with the latter going on to unite with Papua New Guinea as a single nation.

A passionate supporter and advocate of decolonisation like his father, Thomas, together with Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, was an instrumental figure in the unification of the island of New Guinea under one single entity, namely the existing Papua New Guinea, a Commonwealth realm that first gained independence in 1975 from Australia. In this, having been largely critical of Indonesia's controversial Act of Free Choice referendum in which citizens of the country's Western New Guinea region deliberately handpicked by the military voted unanimously in favour of Indonesian control, Thomas soon publicly pressed for a second referendum following the fall of Suharto's "New Order" regime, an event that was followed by gradual democratisation in Indonesia under Suharto's deputy and successor B. J. Habibie. To that end, just several months into Habibie's presidency, around August 1998, Thomas personally traveled to Indonesia where, after a week-long meeting behind closed doors with Habibie that was the subject of much international media coverage, proved ultimately successful in convincing the Indonesian leader to agree to a new free and fair referendum concerning Western New Guinea as well as East Timor, both of which are former European colonies that came under Indonesian control, as Habibie later publicly announced the government's intention to hold a second referendum for both Western New Guinea and East Timor "under the spirit of democracy".

Eventually, on 30 August 1999, under the sponsorship of the United Nations, joint referendums were simultaneously held in both East Timor and Western New Guinea asking voters to choose between greater autonomy within Indonesia or complete independence. In the end, the population in both areas voted decisively for independence, thereby resulting in East Timor becoming an independent nation several years later while Western New Guinea subsequently united with the independent Papua New Guinea, thereby uniting the island of New Guinea for the first time under a single political entity. Since then, for his role in directly meeting with President B. J. Habibie and successfully convincing the latter to grant independence to both areas respectively, Thomas has come to be well-regarded in both East Timor and Papua New Guinea, with the latter country, where he also reigns as monarch, later commissioning a statue of the King in the center of the capital of Port Moresby. Likewise, Bill Skate, whose premiership saw the country unite with the neighbouring Indonesian region, hailed Thomas as an "instrumental figure who publicly fought and advocated for the freedom and rights of Papuan islanders, be it those in Papua New Guinea itself or in the former Indonesian occupation region of Western New Guinea". Even more, both Thomas and Habibie were later nominated and jointly received the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize award for their successful diplomatic efforts regarding East Timor and Papua New Guinea, making the former the only monarch in history ever to receive the award. Meanwhile, Habibie himself left the presidency not long afterward in October 1999 while Indonesian nationalists have come to resent the independence of both East Timor and Western New Guinea, both of which they considered to be fundamentally Indonesian, a factor that reportedly led Thomas to avoid visiting Indonesia afterward for the entirety of his reign over fears of an assassination attempt by hardline Indonesian nationalists who allegedly blamed the royal for his role in precipitating both the independence of East Timor and the unification of the island of New Guinea. Otherwise, for his efforts, Thomas remains a largely popular and celebrated figure among citizens of both Papua New Guinea, where he reigned as monarch, and East Timor.

Final Years

A sight of The O2 Arena, a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Greenwich, London. In 2008, it hosted This Is It, a concert residency by the American pop singer Michael Jackson, famously dubbed the "King of Pop".

With the onset of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, a global recession that was considered to be the most serious recession since the Great Depression, Thomas personally had the tax rate for himself as the British monarch raised to a slightly higher amount as a way to contribute more financially to efforts in mending the recession's immediate effects. Meanwhile, in 2009, Thomas himself also played a notable part in making London the host city for legendary pop star Michael Jackson's This Is It concert, a comeback tour that saw Jackson perform some of his biggest hits including "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Smooth Criminal", and "Black or White" at a sold-out O2 Arena to much theatricality and widespread applause in his first tour since 1997.

Entering the 2010s, amidst widespread political unrest in the Middle East caused by the Arab Spring, in his capacity as the British monarch, Thomas personally met with the Bahraini Twelver Shia cleric Ali Salman during the latter's trip to Europe where he sought to gain foreign support for what later came to be known as the 2011 Bahraini Revolution in which Bahraini revolutionaries overthrew the ruling Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy in favour of a democratic and fully elected republican system of government, a feat that Thomas publicly hailed as the "prevailing of democracy over tyranny", a remark that soon sparked some controversy amidst perceptions of the monarch openly endorsing a political cause. In the following year, Thomas also met with the exiled Iranian royal Reza Pahlavi who, in the aftermath of the Green Revolution which restored the Pahlavi dynasty as a constitutional monarchy, returned to Iran where he later assumed the throne as Reza Shah II, thereby restoring the Iranian monarchy following its prior abolition in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. In this, Reza Pahlavi's accession came within a year after neighbouring Iraq was rocked by an Arab Spring-inspired revolution that overthrew the Ba'ath regime of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein whose death in December 2007 resulted in an ensuing civil war and a struggle for power between his two sons Uday and Qusay, thereby leading to Operation Unifying Democracy in which a US-led coalition sought to restore order and establish democracy in a fractured Iraq, a goal achieved by January 2010 with the election of Jalal Talabani as the country's first democratically-elected president. Consequently, until around late 2024, the death of Saddam Hussein and the fall of his regime thus left its Syrian counterpart under Bashar al-Assad as the only Ba'ath regime remaining until its own overthrow in December 2024 by Syrian rebel forces that ended the Assad family's fifty-four years in power that began under Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar.

The Parliament Complex in London, England, where the Parliament of the United Kingdom is currently based following its move from the longstanding residence of Palace of Westminster in 2016.

On 1 January 2016, following intense political debate and longstanding concerns over the Palace of Westminster's deteriorating condition and its accompanying maintenance costs, the United Kingdom's parliament was officially relocated from the Palace of Westminster, which was subsequently converted into a paid national museum, to the nearby King Charles III Centre, a building that was previously opened by the late King Charles III in 1986 which boasts a capacity of up to 2,500, making it twice as large than the Palace of Westminster in terms of overall capacity. The relocation, which symbolically took place on the 1000th anniversary of the Palace of Westminster's construction in 1016, saw Thomas deliver a farewell speech as parliamentarians were set to depart the building before later delivering a welcoming speech at the King Charles III Centre in honour of its new role as the country's parliamentary complex. In line with this, after a spontaneous vote among parliamentarians, the building was renamed to "Parliament Complex" whereas the names of the lower and upper chambers, the House of Commons and House of Lords respectively, were retained on the basis of familiarity. Meanwhile, with the change in venue to a more "modern" building, Thomas also had the State Opening of Parliament, an event formally marking the beginning of a new parliamentary session be updated as well by substituting the horse-drawn carriages with maroon Bentley vehicles along with opting to disregard the Robe of State and the Imperial State Crown respectively in favour of simply wearing formal clothing.

Throughout the last few years of his reign, two significant nationwide referendums took place in the United Kingdom with one being a referendum on an alternate voting system and another on the United Kingdom's continued membership in the European Union. In this, a proposal for an alternative voting system to replace the traditional "first-past-the-post" was shelved amidst a resounding vote against it in the referendum while the country's membership in the European Union, which they joined back in 1973, was secured after a majority of voters voted for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Around that same time, the union, which currently consists of five constituent nations, came close to partial dissolution following an independence referendum in Scotland where a decisive majority otherwise voted to remain in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, in March 2018, the penultimate year of Thomas's reign, the United Kingdom made history with the election of its first female prime minister, namely Home Secretary Theresa May, having been elected to succeed the incumbent David Cameron after the latter pledged to step down and not seek a third term following the results of the 2015 United Kingdom general election and a referendum in 2016 concerning the country's continued membership in the European Union where the Remain side, which Cameron publicly backed, won against the opposing Leave side. In an ensuing speech made shortly after May was confirmed as Cameron's successor, Thomas said, "Within a year or so, I, a man, will no longer be on this throne but rather my daughter, a young, brilliant, and strong woman. As a father, I could not be happier than to see my own daughter, in her role as a constitutional monarch, work together with a brilliant woman like Theresa May who, with the support of her colleagues and the mandate of the people, will continue to lead the United Kingdom through the incoming years towards further prosperity and progress".

Abdication

On 6 October 2017, while in his bedroom, Thomas was suddenly hit by a stroke that appeared to have paralysed him. However, the swift response from his wife, who happened to be nearby, saw him immediately receive treatment for his condition. Subsequently, throughout the next few days or so, while his stroke was not publicly disclosed, the BBC and other media outlets began reporting on the King receiving treatment for an apparent illness that was vaguely described as having resulted in him being temporarily put out of work, thereby resulting in his brother Nelson, his traditional second-in-command, taking charge for the time being. Eventually, after about a week, Thomas began making a gradual and promising recovery while his stroke was also publicly disclosed to the public for the first time with Thomas himself subsequently addressing a crowd that had gathered outside of Buckingham Palace in anticipation of the monarch's return from his illness.

In the aftermath of the incident, Thomas, having reportedly seen it as a "divine intervention", began considering abdicating the throne just as how his own father did back on the latter's 80th birthday in 1997. Following this, Thomas consulted extensively with Prime Minister David Cameron and cabinet officials where it was eventually agreed that Thomas would formally abdicate the throne on 1 August 2019, the date fixed for the coronation of his daughter. To that end, in a public announcement made shortly after the agreement was reached, Thomas publicly disclosed his intention to abdicate the throne within two years, stating that while his recent health crisis had played some part in influencing his decision, he ultimately wanted to "pass the torch to a younger, more capable generation". Somewhat coincidentally, Thomas's abdication, although the last to take place during the 2010s, followed a series of prior abdications from other monarchs in the world, namely the Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, Belgium's King Albert II, Vatican City's Pope Benedict XVI, Qatar's Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Spain's King Juan Carlos I.

Post-Abdication

Return to Hollywood

The Irish actor Andrew Scott. Best known for his role as James Moriarty in the BBC miniseries Sherlock, Scott later reprised the role in The Napoleon of Crime, a separate BBC miniseries serving as the origin story of James Moriarty.

In 2021, Thomas, having previously portrayed his father in the 2016 biographical drama Jackie, portrayed the latter once more in the biographical drama Albion: Against All Odds, a film directed by the noted British filmmaker Christopher Nolan chronicling the historic moon landing of the United Kingdom's Albion spacecraft on 1 January 1971, for which Thomas himself served as the film's producer under his newfound film production company Atlantic Lens. The film, released on what was the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, was met with critical acclaim and, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, was first exclusively screened for the surviving members of the Albion mission before later being released to the public. Then, in July 2023, Thomas produced and directed The Sea Wolf, a four-part BBC One miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the legendary British naval officer and mercenary Admiral Thomas Cochrane, one of the United Kingdom's most celebrated naval figure of the Napoleonic Wars alongside Horatio Nelson and John Jervis. An immediate success among critics upon its release, the show subsequently saw Cumberbatch win Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Primetime Emmy Awards, while the show itself was nominated for Best Limited Series at both the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

Buoyed by this success, in November 2023, Thomas announced that he was developing another miniseries, also for BBC One, that revolves around the infamous Sherlock Holmes villain Professor Moriarty, thereby making it the first time that the character was ever fully explored on film or television. In announcing the project, Thomas cited the overwhelming number of media portrayals of Moriarty's archnemesis Sherlock Holmes including two films starring Robert Downey Jr. and two separate drama series led by Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch respectively which, in turn, led Thomas to attempt to fully explore the Professor Moriarty character in its own right. Following this, Thomas announced that the Irish actor Andrew Scott, who portrayed the character opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2010 miniseries Sherlock to much critical acclaim, would reprise the role again after fourteen years. At the same time, Thomas explained that Scott's return would not mean a revival of the Sherlock series itself but rather the creation of a new, separate Sherlock Holmes universe with Professor Moriarty as the central character, adding that he ultimately chose Scott for the role out of fascination with the latter's work in Sherlock as the character itself. Envisioned largely as an origin story of the famed archnemesis and officially titled The Napoleon of Crime, a nickname popularly associated with the character, the series made its debut on BBC One on 21 April 2024 to largely positive reviews.

The American actress Zoey Deutch as her character Allison "Ally" Crewson in Clint Eastwood's 2024 legal thriller Juror No. 2.

Following the successes of his miniseries, Thomas also helped co-direct and also starred in the comedy-drama The Year of Spectacular Men, a film produced by Howard Deutch and starred the latter's daughters Zoey and Madelyn alongside Thomas's own son Richard (in his first-ever film role) and wife Lea Thompson, with the latter also serving as co-director in her directorial debut. Filmed over the course of a year, the film was released on the popular streaming service Netflix on 17 November 2024 and was met with "fairly positive" reviews despite being widely considered to be a "family affair" due to the casting choices. Then, on November 20th, it was reported that Thomas and Zoey Deutch would work together again on a spy thriller titled Progeny in which Thomas served as the producer, director, and lead star alongside Deutch. Described as both an espionage and political thriller, the film revolves around a retired MI6 agent played by Thomas, who, following the passing of his wife, an ex-CIA agent, suddenly finds himself confronting enemies from the past, thereby leading him to call upon the couple's only child and daughter, an FBI agent played by Deutch. In the days following the announcement, Tom Hardy, who starred alongside his daughter-in-law Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises as Bane, was later revealed to be playing the film's main villain, a soldier-turned-mercenary leading an anarchist militia group, while Nicholas Hoult, Deutch's co-star from The Great and Juror No. 2, would be playing the younger version of Thomas's character, and Chad Stahelski, best known for his work with the John Wick franchise, was also brought on as co-director.

Eventually, on November 25th, the film made its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London and proved an immediate success among critics upon its release with some praising the fight choreography and camera work while others reserved praise for the film's storytelling, which mainly touches on the dangers of nuclear weapons, and the on-screen bond between the two leads. Produced on a $92 million budget and distributed by A24, the film ultimately made roughly $362 million at the box office, thus becoming 2024's fifteenth-highest-grossing-film and also the highest-grossing A24 film to date, surpassing the previous record of $143 million set by Everything Everywhere All at Once. In the meantime, both Thomas and Deutch were later nominated for and won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively at the Golden Globe Awards, while co-director Chad Stahelski, whom Thomas had brought on as a collaborator due to the latter's work on the John Wick franchise, won his first-ever Best Director award whereas Tom Hardy, despite receiving his first-ever Golden Globes nomination, namely for Best Supporting Actor, otherwise lost it to Kieran Culkin. Moreover, the film also won the award for Best Motion Picture in the drama category. However, amidst positive initial reviews, Thomas promptly rejected any talks of a sequel, stating that the film "may be destined to stand on its own after all" and that he is ultimately satisfied with both how well the film was received by critics and also its performance at the box office as it made roughly four times its budget in total.

On 26 December 2024, a day after Christmas Day celebrations, Thomas confirmed rumours of a planned movie together with American actresses Anne Hathaway and Zoey Deutch, his current daughter-in-law and future daughter-in-law respectively, after they first arose the day before in response to an Instagram posting from Hathaway revealing that a film involving the trio, which would reportedly have the two actresses portray a pair of half-sisters previously unaware of each other's existence suddenly coming face to face for the first time amidst a family drama, is in the works. During a subsequent interview, Thomas added that in addition to mostly financing the film as its producer and co-directing it with the two actresses, he would also be starring in the film itself but in a "more minor" capacity, stating, "Ultimately, while I would obviously be involved in the film one way or another, it is really more about Anne and Zoey than me anyway so there is obviously a situation where I would be in the film for a while that people will know that I'm in it but not to the point that Anne and Zoey, the two actual stars of the film, are ignored or overshadowed entirely by critics and whatnot because the film's theme and plot is ultimately about them, namely about how they ultimately come together and see each other as real siblings despite initial skepticism, mistrust, and the like".

Business Career

New England Patriots

A sight of Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the former home ground of the New England Patriots from 1971 to 2002. Since its demolition in 2002, the New England Patriots have been playing at the nearby John F. Kennedy Stadium.

In 1988, amidst financial struggles plaguing the National Football League franchise New England Patriots, then under the ownership of its founder Billy Sullivan, Thomas, having inherited his father's position as a principal shareholder of Atlantic Connection, a multibillion-dollar holding company founded jointly by the British royal family and the Rockefeller family, expressed his interest in acquiring the team. Almost immediately, his status as a member of a foreign royal family, coupled with him being only twenty-eight at the time, soon sparked considerable media interest in his planned acquisition of the New England Patriots. In response, while acknowledging his foreign background, Thomas, who had spent a considerable part of his childhood in Connecticut under the care of the American actress Katharine Hepburn, declared himself as a "New Englander through and through", adding that despite the skepticism, he personally wanted to be the one responsible for delivering the Super Bowl title to the only National Football League franchise representing the New England region. Prior to his acquisition, the New England Patriots, formerly known as the "Boston Patriots", had only made the playoffs a total of six times and, following the introduction of the Super Bowl in 1967, only reached the final once in 1985 where they lost to the Chicago Bears. Nonetheless, on 10 May 1998, the takeover was officially formalised as Thomas symbolically marked his arrival as the new New England Patriots owner with a ceremony at a sold-out Foxboro Stadium where he delivered a rousing speech vowing to bring a "grand longstanding era" for the franchise during which he famously declared, "Regardless of whether it will take a decade or a century-long, as long as my name is officially listed as this franchise's owner, the Patriots will taste Super Bowl glory not just once but many times to come with the right coach and players that will give it all for the franchise".

In his first season as chairman, the New England Patriots posted a promising 11-5 record but failed to make the playoffs, having fallen one game short behind the Buffalo Bills. Then, in the following season, a 10-6 record saw them finally make the playoffs where they went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos to make the final where they narrowly lost 35-36 to the San Francisco 49ers in a dramatic Super Bowl affair. Following this, the ensuing 1990 season saw the team post a disappointing regular season record of 5-11 but not before promptly rebounding in the subsequent 1991 season where on the back of a 13-3 regular season finish, the New England Patriots eliminated the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos in the playoffs to subsequently defeat the Buffalo Bills 38-34 to become conference champions, a status that allowed it to reach the Super Bowl for just the second time where they eventually defeated the Washington Redskins 40-38 to claim their first-ever Super Bowl title. Despite this, the remaining seasons of the 1990s proved rather fruitless for the New England Patriots who, despite making the playoffs for six seasons straight, failed to immediately secure a second Super Bowl title.

The American football coach Bill Belichick (left) and former American football quarterback Tom Brady (right), two important figures considered central to the sustained dominance of the New England Patriots as the franchise went on to win a record eleven Super Bowl titles and become the only franchise to win it thrice in a row.

Beginning in 2000, under the long two-decade tenure of Bill Belichick, following a 20-34 loss to the Oakland Raiders in the divisional playoffs, the ensuing 2001 season saw the New England Patriots come off a dominant 15-1 regular season to finally win their second Super Bowl title by a close 20-17 win over the St. Louis Rams. Then, despite the immediate 2002 season resulting in another loss to the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs, 2003 saw the New England Patriots clinch their third title with a narrow 32-29 win over the Carolina Panthers and, in turn, successfully defend their title the following season by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21, becoming the most recent NFL team to win the championship back-to-back. Then, after the 2005 and 2006 seasons saw the New England Patriots fail to immediately replicate their back-to-back successes, the team made history in 2007 when, after going 16-0 undefeated in the regular season, only the second time they did so after 2004, the New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants 19-17 in dramatic fashion to win their fourth Super Bowl title. Then, in 2011, the New England Patriots went on to defeat the New York Giants once again 29-24 to win their fifth Super Bowl title, which they, in turn, successfully defended with a 39-30 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the following edition. Following this, from 2013 to 2018, during which their only two losses in the playoffs came at the hands of the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl a further four times during which they made history yet again by becoming the first-ever NFL team to win the Super Bowl thrice in a row, defeating the Atlanta Falcons in 2016, the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017, and the Los Angeles Rams in 2018, the final year that the team would also win the Super Bowl prior to star quarterback Tom Brady's transfer in 2020 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick's own departure from the franchise in 2023, thus bringing to an end the latter's twenty-three-year tenure with the New England Patriots. Consequently, following Belichick's departure, it was announced that former linebacker Jerod Mayo would be the franchise's new head coach, an appointment that, at the age of thirty-eight, temporarily made him the league's youngest head coach and most historically the franchise's first-ever black head coach, a fact that Thomas himself later acknowledged in an accompanying speech, stating, "While the league will forever have Bill as the greatest head coach it has ever seen, it is also rather short-sighted to say that a man, perhaps a black one, could not achieve similar or even greater levels of success that the league's greatest head coach once enjoyed for sports has less to do with one's skin colour and more with someone's talent and capability to go the extra mile and emerge triumphant after the final push". In the ensuing 2024 season, Mayo led the team to post a 13-4 regular season record but fell short of reaching the Super Bowl as they ended up losing 20-45 to the Baltimore Ravens. However, despite successfully overcoming the Ravens themselves, back-to-back winners Kansas City Chiefs were subsequently dealt a surprise 22-40 loss at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of their previous Super Bowl bout just two years prior, thus preventing them from matching the three-peat feat of the New England Patriots.

Despite his foreign and royal background, being only one of two foreign-born NFL owners alongside the Pakistani billionaire Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and also the Premier League club Fulham, the unprecedented success achieved by the New England Patriots since the franchise's acquisition by Thomas in 1988 has come to cement him as one of the league's most popular owners. In this, ESPN claimed that an "effective" and "strategic" use of the siege mentality by Thomas, who often framed the New England Patriots as the region's sole fighter against its many "foreign" opponents in the league, has made him a relatively popular figure among the franchise's faithful who have also responded well to Thomas's long-running public relations strategy of marketing himself as a proper New Englander by virtue of him having spent a considerable part of his childhood in the region despite being born in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, in notable contrast to his peers in the league, Thomas is known for having personally rejected holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy first upon their franchise's victory as per the league's tradition. During a 2018 interview with ESPN, Thomas explained that given his British roots and the fact that owners of European football clubs are not as celebrated as their American counterparts are for their team's successes, he found the American sporting tradition of owners holding the trophy first rather than the coach or players to be somewhat "very strange" and "weirdly eccentric", adding that he believes that as the ones who are responsible for delivering their team's glory, the players and head coach should be the only ones having their hands on the trophy rather than the franchise owner. Meanwhile, in an interview with ESPN, Thomas has also acknowledged the somewhat "ironic" fact of him being the owner of an American football team named after the rebels during the American Revolution who successfully fought for American independence from Great Britain, stating, "It's quite funny how the colonial history between the US and the UK has now pretty much come full circle when a descendant of George III, the British monarch that the Americans were rebelling against, now proudly owns the American sports team named to honour those very people themselves. In a way, one can perhaps see it as me avenging the failures of my ancestor by buying the sports team named after the very people who fought against him, thus perhaps reminding these people that Britain was never really gone after all".

A sight of one of the two Boeing 767s that collectively make up New England Air, a private charter airline used exclusively by the New England Patriots.

In the year 2000, in his capacity as New England Patriots chairman, Thomas spearheaded the construction of a new stadium to replace the longstanding Foxboro Stadium, the original home of the New England Patriots since 1971. To that end, plans for a 70,000-seater multi-purpose stadium were subsequently approved by the local town council of Foxborough and, after a period of two years, ultimately resulted in the opening of a stadium on 11 May 2002, the biggest in the state. For naming purposes, while the stadium was originally named "CMGI Field" upon its opening, by Thomas's discretion, it was officially named "John F. Kennedy Stadium" similar to the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. During a subsequent interview explaining the naming choice, Thomas pointed to the late John F. Kennedy's prominence in Massachusetts as its federal senator and later its state governor following two successful terms as president, thus seemingly warranting such a tribute to the American politician. Nonetheless, since its opening, the stadium has served as the home of both the National Football League and Major League Soccer franchises New England Patriots and New England Revolution respectively and is also set to host several matches of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. Otherwise, a few years after acquiring the New England Patriots, Thomas also founded New England Air, a first-of-its-kind NFL charter airline consisting of two Boeing 767s meant exclusively for transporting the team's players and staff members to matches across the United States. Then, following the introduction of the NFL to London, where the New England Patriots would play one regular game each season, the airline's importance thus grew considerably to transport the team back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean.

Prior to the start of the 2024 season, Thomas announced the appointment of his son William Carter, a highly decorated former professional footballer, as the franchise's deputy chairman, a move speculated by many to be the royal preparing his son for an eventual change in the chairmanship of the New England Patriots, a rumour later confirmed by Thomas himself in a subsequent interview where he revealed his intention to step down prior to the start of the 2028 season at which point he would have served for forty years as chairman of the league's most successful franchise in history. In explaining the decision, Thomas said, "By 2028, I would have been chairman of the franchise for four decades straight or more than half of my currently long life. At that point, one has to acknowledge that a changing of the guard is inevitable and, for the sake of the Patriots, I would like to have that happen exactly when it is supposed to so that the franchise could continue evolving and moving on to a newer, brighter future ahead". Meanwhile, in 2021, in collaboration with the streaming platform Netflix, Thomas helped produce The Patriots: America's Greatest Sporting Dynasty, a sports documentary chronicling the beginning and subsequent domination of the National Football League by the New England Patriots which notably became the only franchise so far to win the Super Bowl thrice in a row. Released on the thirtieth anniversary of the team's maiden Super Bowl victory and amidst the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the documentary was met with immediate critical acclaim and won several accolades at the British Academy Television Craft Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, and the Sports Emmy Awards.

Personal Life

A picture taken of a BMW i8. Developed as a plug-in hybrid sports car by BMW, it first entered production in April 2014 and sold roughly 20,000 units, one of which was acquired by and has since been used by Thomas in a personal capacity.

A self-professed "lover of the antiques", among other things, Thomas is known for his collection of both vintage and luxury automobiles, including the iconic Jaguar E-Type and several other vehicles such as an Aston Martin V8, an Aston Martin DB5, a Bentley Continental GT, a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and a Porsche 959. Regardless, Thomas is known for normally driving a BMW i8, hybrid sports car that he often uses to attend events and other official functions. In addition to this, Thomas is known for his particular love for motorcycles as one of his most preferred pastime activities is said to be riding his red Ducati motorcycle, often while accompanied by at least two of his close friends. Otherwise, being a former naval aviator with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, which he currently serves as the branch's honorary commodore-in-chief, Thomas is capable of operating various modern fighter jets and helicopters including the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, AgustaWestland AW101, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, an expertise that he particularly put to use during the filming of Top Gun, the 1986 action drama film where he played the role of a naval aviator.

Known for his somewhat athletic physique and fit lifestyle, Thomas is known to have enjoyed a variety of other sports including swimming, polo, golf, and tennis. Moreover, since its introduction in 1981, save for only a few instances, Thomas has consistently run in almost every edition of the London Marathon, often alongside his wife, a fellow marathon enthusiast, since the couple's marriage in 1995. In addition, the two are almost always frequently spotted doing morning jogs together, a habit that Thomas said allowed them to easily prepare for the day while also allowing them to calmly work out any issues in the comfort of their own privacy, stating, "Even if we have been married for two decades long and counting, from time to time, we will occasionally run into some trivial issues here and there but, be it during meals, jogs, or when we're simply in bed together, we always calmly and smoothly work these issues out because we ultimately love each other a lot and could also set a good example to our children who could look to how happy and loving their parents are with each other when they decide to get married and have their own families later". Otherwise, while previously a habitual smoker, since becoming a father and especially following the death of his father-in-law from smoking-induced lung cancer, Thomas has since long abstained from smoking and, in turn, has been a vocal advocate against the habit himself to the point of even once calling for a complete, outright ban on cigarettes. In November 2017, while addressing a stroke that briefly paralysed him the previous month, Thomas jokingly claimed that he would have been "dead for good" if not for his decision to quit smoking beforehand, adding, "Since at least 1979, I have a solid purpose to live for a very long time which is to see my children grow up and have their own children afterward. Because of that, I'm doing everything possible so that like my father, who passed away late into his 90s, I'll live long enough to see my family grow and enjoy what life has to offer me next". In the meantime, Thomas has also spoken of being somewhat fond for martial arts, namely in Krav Maga, boxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, all of which he had during his time in the military as part of the armed forces self-defense classes, which he later used to great effect for his action roles.

The late Scottish actor Sir Sean Connery, best known as the first actor to have portrayed the fictional British spy James Bond, doing so for a total of seven times. With Thomas, Connery starred together in two films, namely The Untouchables and The Hunt for Red October.

Despite his largely British upbringing and upper-class lifestyle, owing to him being bidialectal, a skill he honed from an early age, Thomas is known for his ability to seamlessly switch between American and British accents, a unique trait that allows him to convincingly play non-English characters including the DC Comics superhero Batman, the American spy character Jack Ryan, and the American Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, a real-life law enforcement icon born in Chicago, Illinois, a fact that led Thomas to meticulously perfect the so-called "Chicago accent" in preparation for his role in The Untouchables, for which his portrayal of Eliot Ness was met with unanimous applause. In this, American actress Zoey Deutch, currently the fiance of his son Richard, even revealed during an appearance on The Tonight Show how, in preparation for her role in The Outfit, Deutch, a Los Angeles native, consulted Thomas for help in developing an authentic "Chicago accent" for the film, citing the aforementioned widespread acclaim that the latter received for his role in The Untouchables. Otherwise, on most occasions, Thomas speaks with a Received Pronunciation accent much like the rest of the British royal family.

With a younger brother and also three children involved in sports, although not a professional athlete himself, Thomas is known to be otherwise very passionate about sports himself. In this, Thomas is best known for his lifelong support for the English football club Manchester United and, in turn, has named Manchester United and England legend, the late Sir Bobby Charlton, as his favourite player of all time, having once said, "If one were to ask me who my three favourite footballers are, it would be, in descending order, Bobby Charlton, Pelé, and my own son". In addition to this, as the current, longtime owner of the New England Patriots, the most successful team in the National Football League, Thomas is thus also known to be a supporter of the Patriots himself. Meanwhile, when it comes to basketball, an equally popular sport in the United States, Thomas, having once famously declared himself to be a "New Englander through and through", disclosed in an ESPN interview his support for the Boston Celtics, stating, "Admittedly, I'm not that super invested in the lores for each of the teams in the NBA to really form a strong opinion or the sort. However, as the only team located in what everyone considers to be New England, I generally support the Celtics as they are the only ones fighting for the region's pride in the league". As a result, under that same principle, Thomas is thus reportedly a fan of the Major League Baseball team Boston Red Sox, for whom he even had the special honour of throwing the ceremonial first pitch, namely at the 2004 World Series in which Boston Red Sox defeated St. Louis Cardinals to claim their first championship title since 1918, thereby ending the so-called "Curse of the Bambino". Coincidentally, Anne Hathaway, his daughter-in-law, is known to be a supporter of Boston Red Sox's arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, while his wife instead supports the San Francisco Giants.

Known for his somewhat liberal-minded character, which he largely inherited from his similarly liberal-minded father, who once publicly criticised the apartheid system in South Africa, prior to his ascension to the throne, Thomas once sparked much controversy by publicly calling for the repeal of historical laws forbidding marriages between members of the royal family with Roman Catholic spouses, stating, "At the time these laws were put into place, it was a much different time than today and back then, there was a very strong anti-Catholic throughout Britain in which the Protestant-majority population was somewhat paranoid about Roman Catholics supposedly taking over the country and then relentlessly persecuting them afterward. Now, centuries later, it is safe to say that such paranoia exists only in the minds of an extreme few, and thus these laws, given the context of their implementation, should be appropriately repealed to reflect the massive change in society since then". Meanwhile, in an interview following his sister's marriage to the American actress Jodie Foster, the first same-sex marriage involving a British royal, Thomas publicly voiced his support for same-sex relationships and marriages in general, stating, "For me, as long as those two people in a relationship, be it a man and a woman, or a man with a man and a woman with a woman, are happy with each other, then I really have no reason to start calling them out and criticising them on the basis of it being supposedly non-traditional, unnatural, and whatnot. Ultimately, if one wants to talk about whether same-sex relationships are sinful or not, I think that such a question is best dealt with between the individual and God themselves rather than between two mere mortals who are nothing but flawed beings themselves to really give a judgement on matters like same-sex relationships".

Romances

Main article: Personal Life (Thomas): Romances

The American supermodel Christy Turlington pictured together with fellow fashion models and the Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace. In 1995, the couple married in a high-profile ceremony, after which they went on to have five children together.

Considered to be one of the world's most eligible bachelors, in his youth, Thomas was variously linked to many different famous women of both royal and non-royal lineages. However, since his marriage to the American supermodel Christy Turlington, Thomas has only ever acknowledged two other prior relationships, namely one with the American actress Lynda Carter and the other with the American politician Caroline Kennedy. Otherwise, since 1995, Thomas has been married to the American supermodel Christy Turlington, with whom he has five children in total.

From 1978 to 1992, a period of almost two decades long, Thomas engaged in a long-term relationship with the American actress Lynda Carter. In this, the two had first met each other while Carter was in the midst of starring in the popular superhero television series Wonder Woman as the titular character. Subsequently, in 1979, the couple welcomed their first child together, namely a son named William, and in 1982, a daughter named Jacqueline. However, despite the births of their two children, Carter's status as a divorcee, coupled with her ex-husband still being alive at the time, meant that the two could not practically marry without triggering a constitutional crisis back home in the United Kingdom where Thomas, being next in line to the throne, was expected to marry a Protestant woman who is neither married nor divorced in line with his eventual status as the supreme head of the Church of England. Eventually, by 1992, the couple decided to part ways on mutual terms, thereby leading to a brief period of separation before they were reunited around a decade later due to their son's decision to further his career as a professional footballer in England.

In addition to Carter, for a brief period from 1975 to 1976, Thomas was also briefly romantically involved with the American politician Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. However, despite some encouraging signs, coupled with traditionally close relations between the British royal family and the Kennedy family, the latter family's Roman Catholic identity, coupled with Kennedy's desire to avoid the spotlight of being a queen consort resulted in the two ending their short-lived romance although they have since remained close lifelong friends on generally warm terms and later became in-laws as well afterward when Jack Shand and Alexandra, their respective children, later tied the knot in January 2023 following an almost decade-long relationship.

Meanwhile, given his high-profile pairing with actress Meg Ryan in three acclaimed romantic comedies, all of which came about while either Thomas or Ryan were already married at one point or another. For several years throughout the 1990s, Ryan, who married actor Dennis Quaid in 1991 before later divorcing in 2001, was often rumoured to be Thomas's love interest both on-screen and off-screen given their apparent friendliness towards each other in general and their widely-praised on-screen chemistry, both of which led to the popular portmanteau "Megmas", a play on the name of the annual Christmas festival. However, Thomas, who later married the American supermodel Christy Turlington in 1995, has since strongly denied such rumours while otherwise describing themselves as "two actors who simply clicked with each other", adding that with both of them being faithfully married to their respective spouses at the time, the two thus generally saw each other as very close friends more than anything else. In this, several media outlets have since drawn comparisons between Meg Ryan and fellow actress Katharine Hepburn who, much like Ryan, is a close friend of a British monarch, namely Thomas's father, with the two said to have enjoyed a decade-long romance throughout the 1940s before later remaining as close friends for the rest of their lives. Otherwise, following her divorce in 2001 from Dennis Quaid, with whom she had a son Jack, Ryan later remarried to singer-songwriter John Mellencamp two decades later in 2021, becoming a stepmother to the latter's five children from his previous relationships.

Beginning in 1992, following a chance encounter at the Met Gala in New York, United States Thomas began a romantic relationship with the American supermodel Christy Turlington, to whom he was initially introduced by his sister, namely the Princess Royal. In this, despite issues over Christy's Roman Catholic belief and her suitability as a queen consort, the couple enjoyed a firm and strong relationship which eventually translated into an official wedding on 14 July 1995, an event that saw the American supermodel become the first British royal consort of the Roman Catholic faith, a feat made possible by the passage of the Succession to the Crown Act 1995 which, among others, replaced male-preference primogeniture in favour of absolute primogeniture while also lifting the longstanding restrictions on British royals marrying a Roman Catholic spouse, something that was previously forbidden by the Royal Marriages Act 1772. Following this, in 1996, the couple then welcomed their first child together, namely the future Queen Alexandra, followed by their only son Richard in 1999, and three further daughters, namely Nicole in 2003 as well as twins Elle and Vivian in 2004, both of whom are named after the Legally Blonde characters Elle Woods and Vivian Kensington, played by actresses Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair respectively. To that end, in a somewhat ironic connection, Witherspoon's ex-husband, actor Ryan Phillippe, is currently married to model and former Victoria's Secret Angel Lindsay Wilson, the daughter of actor Roger Wilson who, in turn, was formerly the romantic partner of Thomas's wife.

Titles & Honours

• 17 December 1960 - 17 December 1961 His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall
• 17 December 1961 - 15 January 1997 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
• 15 January 1997 - 1 August 2019 His Majesty The King of the British
• 1 August 2019 - Present His Majesty The King Emeritus

Honours

National & Commonwealth

• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Williamite Order
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Family Order of King Thomas
• United Kingdom - Recipient of the Royal Family Order of King Charles III
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Medal of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of King Charles III
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Royal Guelphic Order
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Order of St. George
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle​
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath​
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Order of the British Empire
• United Kingdom - Sovereign of the Distinguished Service Order
• Canada - Sovereign of the Order of Canada
• Australia - Sovereign of the Order of Australia
• New Zealand - Sovereign of the Order of New Zealand
• West Indies - Sovereign of the Order of West Indies
• Philippines - Sovereign of the Order of the Philippines
• Solomon Islands - Sovereign of the Order of Solomon Islands
• Tuvalu - Sovereign of the Order of Tuvalu
• Papua New Guinea - Sovereign of the Order of Logohu

Foreign

• Spain - Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
• Portugal - Grand Collar of the Order of the Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, and of Valour, Loyalty and Merit
• Norway - Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St Olav
• Sweden - Member of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
• Sweden - Commander Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword
• Denmark - Knight of the Order of the Elephant
• Denmark - Grand Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog
• Greece - Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
• Germany - Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle
• Netherlands - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau
• Belgium - Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold
• Italy - Dame of the Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Crown of Italy
• Japan - Collar and Grand Order of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
• France - Grand Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour
• Malaysia - Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm
• Singapore - Honorary First Class of the Order of Temasek
• South Africa - Companion in Gold of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
• Mexico - Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Guadalupe
• Mexico - Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle
• Iran - Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Hollywood Knights	Newbomb Turk
1981	Stripes	John Winger
1983	The Outsiders	Ponnyboy Curtis
1984	Birdy	"Birdy"
	The Bounty	Fletcher Christian
1985	Out of Africa	Denys Finch Hatton
1986	Top Gun	Lieutenant Michael "Bulldog" Lawrence
1987	The Untouchables	Eliot Ness
	No Way Out	Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell
1988	Rain Man	Charlie Babbitt
1989	Batman	Batman
1990	The Hunt for Red October	Jack Ryan
1991	Regarding Henry	Henry Turner
1992	Batman Returns	Batman
	A Few Good Men	Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee
1993	Sleepless in Seattle	Sam Baldwin
1994	Maverick	Bret Maverick
	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Tom
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Edward Ferrars
1996	The English Patient	László Almásy
1997	As Good as It Gets	Melvin Udall
1998	You've Got Mail	Joe Fox
2001	Kate & Leopold	His Grace Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Thomas Gareth Mountbatten, 3rd Duke of Albany
2003	Love Actually	Jamie
2016	Jackie	King Charles III
2017	Red Nose Day Actually	Jamie
2021	Albion: Against All Odds	King Charles III	Also producer
2024	The Year of Spectacular Men	Thomas Bennett	Also director
	Progeny	William Montgomery	Also director and producer

Ancestry

Ancestors of Thomas, King of the British
8. George V 4. Frederick 9. Princess Sophia of Prussia 2. Charles III 10. Wilhelm II, German Emperor 5. Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia 11. Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg 1. Thomas, King of the British 12. Zalman Perski 6. William Perske 13. Sheyna Yofa 3. Lauren Bacall 14. Max Weinstein 7. Natalie Bacall 15. Sophia Bacall