LONDON, United Kingdom — Davina Morley, who dated King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales, has died after a brief illness. She was 75.
News of her death was reported on Friday, September 11, 2026.
Morley, then known as Davina Sheffield, was in a relationship with the future king in 1976.
British press accounts presented her as a possible royal bride.
Reports from the period said the prince was strongly attached to her and that members of the royal family regarded her favourably.
Morley was a granddaughter of Lord Harry McGowan, a Scottish industrialist.
The relationship ended after a former boyfriend disclosed that he and Morley had shared a home.
At the time, that history was regarded as incompatible with the expectations imposed on a prospective wife of the heir to the throne, according to accounts of their courtship.
Published reports said the separation left Morley deeply distressed.
She later married Jake Morley in 1981, the same year the prince married Diana Spencer, later the Princess of Wales. Friends and royal correspondents described her husband as the “love of her life”.
The couple had three sons.
Her husband died in 2022 at the age of 80.
Morley’s sons were at her bedside when she died, according to published accounts.
