US President who tried to set his daughter up with King Charles and his response
King Charles III has visited the United States on many occasions throughout his lifetime and met 10 out of the last 14 Presidents, including Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
While he would later return for solo visits and trips with Princess Diana and the Queen Consort, his first Stateside engagements were with Princess Anne in 1970 at the invitation of President Richard Nixon.
The late Queen's two eldest children made the journey across the pond and were well-received by the crowds.
According to resurfaced letters and interviews with those involved in orchestrating Prince Charles and Princess Anne's visit, President Nixon had an ulterior motive which involved his daughter, Tricia.
Princess Anne joined her elder brother on their first visit to the US (Getty)The President took a particular interest in the love life of the heir to the throne with biographer Sally Bedell Smith writing that Nixon tried to play matchmaker between Charles and his daughter.
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"More than three decades later when Charles and his new wife, Camilla, visited George W and Laura Bush at the White House, he joked that the Bushes had better not try to fix up their twin daughters with his sons William and Harry the way Nixon had worked to set him up with Tricia," she wrote.
In a 2021 interview, Charles again reflected on that trip to Washington and the social engagements that had been organised. "That was quite amusing, I must say," he told CNN.
"That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon."
The King recalled the attempts to set him up with Tricia Nixon (Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho)
Tricia Nixon accompanied the-then Prince of Wales on several engagements (2013 Getty Images)Love the royals? Sign up for the Mirror's daily newsletter to get all the latest news on the Queen, Charles, Kate, Wills, Meghan, Harry and the rest of The Firm. Click here to sign up .
Nixon himself had pushed for the-then Prince of Wales to visit the US for the public relations boost it would surely provide, according to a January 1970 memo he sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.
It read: "I think this could do an enormous amount of good for US-British relations." Adding that Charles "is the real gem" of the Royal Family and "makes an enormously favourable impression wherever he goes".
The 21-year-old Prince returned the praise in a thank-you note, saying: "The kindness shown to us at the White House was almost overwhelming and for that we are immensely grateful.
"Both my sister and I take back to Britain the most heart-warming evidence of what is known as the special relationship between our two countries and of the great hospitality shown to us by you and your family."
The Queen met Richard Nixon on several occasions (PA)President Nixon had met the Queen before he entered office and showed her and Prince Philip around the White House in 1957. One awkward moment from the meeting was revealed in the memoir of former First Lady Pat Nixon which was written by their younger daughter, Julie Nixon.
The book revealed when the-then Vice President had to borrow a suit in "desperation" because he had forgotten to bring black tie.
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The couple's daughter explained that the night began "on a frantic note for my parents".
She wrote: "My father had assumed that the dinner would be white tie. But in London he learned that the Queen had specifically requested less formal attire. He had to come up with a dinner jacket in a hurry."
Nixon persuaded another guest, a Scotland Yard detective, to lend his outfit and dine alone upstairs.
Nixon explained his predicament to the Queen, telling her: "I'm afraid this isn't my suit." Julie said the suit was "too short in the arms and looked as if it had come from a local rental agency", but noted that the Queen laughed heartily at the situation.
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