Exclusive: King blocked from contacting Ranulph Fiennes by explorer’s wife
Exclusive: King blocked from contacting Ranulph Fiennes by explorer’s wife
Gordon RaynerSun, September 27, 2026 at 8:35 PM UTC
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The King with Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 2012. The monarch is concerned about the explorer’s wellbeing - Getty Images/Chris Jackson
The King tried to check on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s wellbeing but was blocked from doing so by the explorer’s wife, The Telegraph has learnt.
His Majesty, a friend of Sir Ranulph for decades, was alerted to his declining health and isolation by another adventurer, and was “most concerned” by what he was told, one of his staff said at the time.
The King’s equerry contacted the person who had written the letter to ask how the King could get in touch with Sir Ranulph, and was given a phone number for Louise Millington-Cotes, his wife and legal guardian.
The friend who passed on her number to the Palace thought Sir Ranulph would be “thrilled” to know that the King cared so much about him.
But Ms Millington-Cotes was angry that the Palace had been given her details, and threatened the intermediary with a solicitor and the police, claiming they were causing her husband “immense distress” and telling them to “back off”.
It is understood that Ms Millington-Cotes declined to put the King in touch with her husband.
She told friends that the King hated her husband and that Queen Camilla had helicopters fly over their property to annoy them, it is alleged.
Sir Ranulph, 82, has not been seen in public for two years. Ms Millington-Cotes, 59, was granted lasting power of attorney over him in November 2024, and placed him in a succession of care homes under an assumed name.
At first, friends were allowed to see him if they signed non-disclosure agreements, but since the start of this year she has not told any of his family or friends where he is.
On Feb 12 last year, Anton Bowring, who took part in the Transglobe Expedition, of which the King was patron, with Sir Ranulph between 1979 and 1982, wrote to Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s private secretary, to inform His Majesty that his friend was “in a very poor state” and had been under the care of his wife since the previous September.
He added: “Very little information about him is forthcoming, and his many friends are concerned about him. More than that I cannot say, but I just thought that His Majesty would like to know.”
Later the same month, on Feb 24, the King’s then equerry, Cdr William Thornton, contacted Mr Bowring.
Mr Bowring told The Telegraph: “He said the King was most concerned and would really like to write to Ran, Louise and their daughter Elizabeth to express his concern and see if there was anything he could do to help. He asked how he could communicate that to Ran, and asked if I had Louise’s phone number.
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“He said ‘I can give her a ring and if it’s a no we can let the matter drop’.”
About an hour later, Mr Bowring received a text from Ms Millington-Cotes saying: “I’m going to be changing my phone number because of you!!! There is nothing further that we need you to help with. Thank you.”
Mr Bowring apologised, saying: “I really thought that Ran would be thrilled to know that the King cared about him ... the Palace will be completely discreet and not trouble you again if you don’t want them to. They were being kind and thoughtful ... I am deeply saddened.”
Ms Millington-Cotes replied: “I’m contacting a solicitor and the police if you continue this! That was utterly inappropriate! You haven’t listened to anything I’ve explained to you about Ran’s feelings about his condition. You are causing him immense distress! Nobody else is??? Back off!!!”
Mr Bowring responded that “I don’t think there’s anything that a solicitor or the police could do about a close friend caring for his chum. All I want is to do my best for Ran. I wanted to help you. Sadly I’ve failed and a door has closed. Your anger is nothing compared to my sadness”.
Ms Millington-Cotes did not reply.
Famous friends call for investigation
Another friend of Sir Ranulph, the German entrepreneur Mike Kobold, then wrote to the King, giving him an update and being more explicit about Sir Ranulph’s isolation. But Ms Millington-Cotes had made it clear that she did not welcome any further contact from the palace.
In November last year, after trying and failing to persuade social services departments to intervene, Mr Bowring’s wife Jill wrote to the Office of the Public Guardian setting out her concerns about Sir Ranulph.
In the letter she mentioned the King’s attempt to contact him and said her husband had told the equerry that “during an earlier phone call Louise had said that the King hated Ran, and that Queen Camilla had helicopters flying over their home in an effort to intimidate them, so it was unlikely that any message from the King would get a good reception from Louise”.
Since then, Sir Ranulph has been moved to care homes in Wales and Cheshire, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
Famous friends of Sir Ranulph, including Ben Fogle, Bear Grylls, Joanna Lumley, John Simpson and Monty Don have called for an investigation into his wellbeing by the Office of the Public Guardian.
Sir Ranulph’s stepson, Alex Millington-Cotes, Ms Millington-Cotes’s estranged son, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a legal challenge to her guardianship.
Ms Millington-Cotes and Buckingham Palace were contacted for comment.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
