Everything King Charles Said About His Famous 'Sausage Fingers'

They've become the subject of a number of viral internet posts and social media discussions over the years, and now King Charles III has publicly joked about his "sausage fingers" in a new documentary.

The 75-year-old king's swollen fingers have previously prompted speculative medical analysis in the media. However, their cause is unknown and can be hereditary or linked to a number of factors including sudden changes in temperature and fluid retention.

Over the years, Charles' hands have been poked fun at by comedians and, reportedly, royal family members too.

Now, in the documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year which will air in Britain on December 26, the king himself has appeared to take part in the joke.

Here, Newsweek looks at what King Charles has said about his "sausage fingers."

Coronation Challenge

At important moments throughout his first year as king, Charles and Queen Camilla were shadowed by a camera crew working on the BBC documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year.

The fly-on-the-wall-style one-off special will feature never-before-seen footage from the preparations for the coronation which took place at Westminster Abbey on May 6.

In a clip, reported by The Daily Telegraph, during these preparations Prince William got into difficulty when trying to close the clasp of a golden robe he was ceremonially dressing the king with.

Attempting to fix the clasp he told his father: "On the day it's not going to go in, is it!"

To this, Charles is reported to have light-heartedly referenced his famous fingers, reassuring his son: "You haven't got sausage fingers like mine."

'Just Like Mine'

Though Charles reassured an adult William that he doesn't share his father's enlarged fingers in the lead-up to the coronation, when he was a baby the royal appeared to make a different observation.

In his 1994 authorized biography by broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, a letter from Charles to two friends after William's birth showed that the proud new father noted his "appetizing" son's small hands.

"I can't tell you how excited and proud I am," he wrote about his new-born son in 1982. "He really does look surprisingly appetizing and has sausage fingers just like mine."

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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