King Charles gets 'ambushed' as his team abandons him: 'They disappeared'
His Majesty reacts to getting 'ambushed' with an offering that he felt like he 'couldn't turn down'
December 19, 2025
King Charles was caught totally off guard during his 10-day expedition to the Canadian Arctic in 1975.
His Majesty, then a 26-year-old Prince of Wales, visited an elementary school during the historic trip. It was there that he was cornered into trying a local delicacy that he simply couldn’t turn down — no matter how much he wanted to. Now 77, King Charles revisits the moment with Steve Backshall in the latter’s new documentary, Royal Arctic Challenge, in which Backshall recreates the King’s journey.
A clip of the ITV documentary — which premiered Thursday, December 18 — was shared to the official Royal Family Instagram Page on Friday. The accompanying caption read, “During a trip to Frobisher elementary school in the Canadian Arctic in 1975, His Majesty was ambushed to try a unique indigenous delicacy – high in nutrients but an acquired taste!”
The delicacy in question was raw seal meat, which is an important traditional food, high in vital vitamins and other nutrients but very much an acquired taste to many non-indigenous palates.
“You got ambushed by this young girl offering you something which I presume you couldn’t turn down,” Backshall says to the monarch as they watch archive footage from 50 years ago. “I didn’t think I could,” replies the King as he watches his younger self obligingly taste some raw seal liver.
“It took some time to persuade my gullet to work to swallow it,” the King admits. He recalled inviting his expedition mates to try some, too. But when he turned around, “they’d all disappeared!” he recalls with a chuckle.
The documentary also delves into other aspects of Charles’ trip, including a deep dive in freezing water and snowmobile racing. Backshall recreates the trip to determine the impact of climate change 50 years later.
“It was amazing in those days because it was still — thank god I saw it as it should be,” the King told Backshall. “I learnt a great deal from going there,” he added, including things like local customs, work, building igloos, hunting, and so on.
