After adventurer Anton Bowring warned of Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s poor health, King Charles tried to reach his longtime friend, but Fiennes’s wife and legal guardian, Louise Millington-Cotes, declined to put them in contact, The Telegraph reported.
Bowring, who joined Fiennes on the 1979–82 Transglobe Expedition, wrote to the King’s private secretary in February 2025, describing Fiennes as being “in a very poor state.” The Telegraph reported that an equerry contacted Fiennes and was given his wife’s number; she objected to the palace having it and threatened Bowring with legal and police action, reportedly saying the outreach caused her husband “immense distress.”
Fiennes, 82, has Parkinson’s disease and has not appeared publicly since late 2024. His wife received lasting power of attorney in November 2024. Family and friends allege he has been moved between care homes under an assumed name and say they have not been told his location since early 2026; they want the Office of the Public Guardian to investigate his care. His stepson Alexander Millington-Cotes has launched a fundraiser for a legal challenge to remove his mother’s power of attorney and said the agency’s safeguarding team had not responded.
