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I Analyzed Every Royal’s Enneagram Personality Based on Hundreds of Pages of Interviews—Here’s What I Came Up With
By Marissa Wu,
3 hours ago
While I can’t say I’m one for celebrity news, as a journalist and writer, I am fascinated by personality types . In fact, this is my cocktail party trick. With about half an hour and 20 questions, I can usually pinpoint someone’s Enneagram or Myers-Briggs personality type. Whenever I read or watch an interview, I’m constantly consulting my Rolodex of personality types, trying to decide if Kelly Ripa is an ENFP (spoiler, she is) or if Taylor Swift is *actually* an Enneagram 3 (she’s one to a T). So, I thought, why not try my hand with the royals? I consulted PureWow’s senior director of special projects & royals, Rachel Bowie , who furnished me with what she believed to be a few key personality-defining interviews with members of the House of Windsor. After reading over 100 pages of profiles and articles and assessing hours of video footage, here are my best guesses on the current royal family’s Enneagram personality types.
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King Charles
Samir Hussein/Contributor/Getty Images
Personality Type: Enneagram 4, “The Individualist”
“My great problem in life is that I do not really know what my role in life is. I must find one,” King Charles was quoted in The New Yorker . This is a textbook Enneagram 4 log line, as this personality’s basic desire is to discover their personal significance, or “find themselves.” (Contrarily, their basic fear is that they will have no personal significance.) So even more damning when James Poniewozik wrote in The New York Times , “Charles has never been the star of his own life. He’s been the king for months now; he’s been an international figure for decades. But much of his story has been his mother’s, his wives’, his children’s.”
In a quest for significance, 4s are known to walk off the beaten path, which is why it would make sense that Rebecca Mead would write in The New Yorker, “It was, he later said, the moment when he first saw clearly the ‘awful truth’ of his singular fate.” While it was reported that King Charles would rather have been off the remote corners of Cumbria, he certainly has taken a traditional role (Prince of Wales) and made it his own.
“The position of Prince of Wales has no specified constitutional purpose or duties, as Charles discovered as a young man, when he instructed his staff to research precedents and possibilities, and found no guidance,” Mead writes. Rather than be deterred, King Charles launched myriad initiatives and championed the environment long before it was fashionable to do so. Even now, as king, he shows he’s marching to his own beat—in 2022, when told the government preferred he not attend the climate conference COP27, Charles complied…but promptly hosted 200 politicians and activists at Buckingham Palace three days before the event.
Queen Camilla has a reputation as a helper . Stephen Bates writes for The Guardian that “The marriage appears to have been a success. It has made Charles visibly less tense and grumpy and more smiley at public events, and Camilla has come to be regarded as a good sort, friendly and approachable.” Meanwhile, Camilla Tominey chimes in, writing, “Ever the King’s stalwart ‘plus one,’ Camilla privately resolved to be his ‘liege woman of life and limb,’ supporting him through that difficult and emotional first week,” in the Telegraph article that published soon after Queen Elizabeth II ’s passing.
However, Tominey also reports, “‘That’s always been one of Camilla’s key strengths…She knows how to handle him. She’s always been a good wife for him and a good match—there’s no argument about that. She keeps him calm and makes him laugh.’” And THAT is why I think she’s a 2. Because yes, you can make the argument that she’s concerned with her public image and driven (textbook Enneagram 3 traits), so she could be a 2 with a 3 wing (stylized 2w3). But 2s can be manipulative when provoked, and that’s what I’m getting a sense of. As one “insider” told Tominey, “The King does have weaknesses and it’s fair to say that the Queen knows how to exploit them. But it’s a bigger court now and the King has duties that can’t be ignored and that need the support of the Queen.”
In The New Yorker profile on King Charles, it was noted that the monarch was pleased his son and heir seemed to be picking up the mantle of crusading for the environment with the launch of the Earthshot Prize. To me, Prince William reads as an Enneagram 3, the type known to be pragmatic, adaptable, success-driven and image conscious. (If we’re getting way down in the details, I’d say his service as an air ambulance pilot makes him a 3w2, as he’s noted that he appreciated the opportunity to make a tangible difference in people’s lives through that line of work.)
Enneagram 3s look to their environment to define success, and then set out to achieve it. In the case of the Prince of Wales, he’s embraced his destiny as future king. “When he was a gap year student, he traveled to Chile where, according to someone he was with, he was painfully aware of the burden of his birthright,” writes Katie Nicholl in Vanity Fair. “‘We were all sitting ‘round a campfire excitedly discussing our futures,’” a source explained, “‘William said, ‘You’re all so lucky. I’ll have to be king one day.’”
This personality type is also notoriously image-conscious, and I think that really came into play when the prince threatened to skip his grandmother’s Order of the Garter Service if his uncle, the scandal-laden Prince Andrew, was in the procession.
In addition to molding himself to his family’s idea of success (providing the monarchy’s continuity), Prince William has also shown that he is influenced by what the public believes makes a “successful” monarch. Notably, in the statement he released following a poorly-received press tour of the Caribbean. “Catherine and I are committed to service. For us that’s not telling people what to do. It is about serving and supporting them in whatever way they think best, by using the platform we are lucky to have.” In other words, he knows what people are thinking, and he’ll pander to it.
Princess Catherine is an Enneagram 1 to a T. One of the key desires of this personality type is to “be beyond criticism,” and indeed, one of the chief criticisms about the Princess of Wales is that she’s…bland.
“In many ways, it’s difficult to get a true sense of the real Duchess of Cambridge—so determined does she seem to project an aura of blandness as part of her regal persona,” Anna Pasternak writes in Tatler . “When I broach the subject, I hear the same sentiments from others, from royal insiders to society figures: ‘I just don’t know who she is.’ One member of the young royal set says: ‘I’ve spent quite a lot of time around Kate and she is impenetrable. There is nothing to like or dislike.’”
But aloofness aside, Kate crusades for a number of charitable causes, and something this personality type craves is the ability to improve the world in any way they can, using whatever influence they have. (And the Windsors have plenty of influence.) The princess also understands her place in The Firm, never having, Pasternak notes, “an LK Bennett-shod foot out of place.” Textbook perfectionist, also a hallmark of Enneagram 1. Above all, this type will always strive for higher values, even at great personal cost, so seeing as Pasternak notes, “She is a royal ballast, William’s most trusted adviser, and someone who puts duty above all else,” it’s a dead ringer, with Rebecca English writing in The Daily Mail , “Catherine’s focus was on supporting him and making sure that they, as a couple, never did anything that was contrary to their values.”
The ginger-haired prince isn’t afraid to raise hell ( Spare and stepping down from royal life being prime examples, not to mention some wild younger years). That’s the MO of Enneagram 8, also known as “The Challenger.” This personality type is willful, confrontational and decisive, with a desire to protect themselves and be in control of their own life. Their greatest fear is being controlled by others—a saga we’ve seen very publicly played out over the years.
J. R. Moehringer, Prince Harry’s ghostwriter on Spare, gave the snappiest window into my assessment, writing, in The New Yorker , “Finally, he exhaled and calmly explained that, all his life, people had belittled his intellectual capabilities, and this flash of cleverness proved that, even after being kicked and punched and deprived of sleep and food, he had his wits about him.”
Another hallmark of Enneagram 8s is the difficulty they experience expressing emotion. Bryony Gordon, writing for Telegraph , noted the prince shared that in the years between the death of Princess Diana and his first therapy session, he had only cried twice.
While 8s have a reputation for being controlling, when healthy, they actually take up the mantle of caring, open-hearted 2s. “He tells me that he is ‘someone who likes to fix things. If I see wrongdoing and a pattern of behavior that is harming people, I will do everything I can to try and change it,’” he tells Gordon.
Though I have several speculations as to the Duchess of Sussex’s personality type, two observations from her 2022 interview in The Cut lead me to believe that she’s an Enneagram 3 with a 4 wing.
“Meghan…wouldn’t relinquish control over her own image,” writes Allison P. Davis in the article. “And while she was a fine actress, the job she is best at is envisioning a life for herself and getting it.”
Enneagram 3s are image conscious and ambitious; they want to excel. In the book Levels of Development , which explains how a personality type conducts themselves at varying capacities of mental health, an “average” 3 will be hyper-focused on what others define as success. However, healthy 3 at their best will be internally motivated by their own ideas of what success means, and I think that’s where Markle sits, based on Davis’s assessment. She’s not worried that she didn’t bow to The Firm’s expectations. Instead, she understood what success looked like to her, took Prince Harry’s hand and got the hell out.
There’s also a possibility that she has a 4 wing, meaning she expresses some traits of the Enneagram 4, though not as strongly as she does the 3. Ever since the duchess joined the royal family, Meghan has proved she does things her own way, tradition be damned. From the infamous spat over bridesmaids tights to a tell-all interview with Oprah , she’s playing by her rules, determined to narrate her own story and craft an identity that belongs solely to her and no one else.
The Princess Royal was dubbed “the hardest working royal” last year and remains a stalwart in the family despite turbulence. Though she rarely gives interviews, Princess Anne sat with CBC News for an interview prior to her brother’s coronation, and everything she said was a dead ringer for the Enneagram 6. This personality type is hardworking (check), responsible (check) and trustworthy (check). In the conversation with correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, the princess said, “Monarchy provides long term stability that is hard to come by any other way.” The 6 craves stability and security, looking towards others to provide reassurance, and will be intensely loyal to beliefs, ideas and systems. Princess Anne illustrated this when she commented, “The family is there to support the monarch. I believe there is genuine benefit from the constitutional monarchy. That commitment to the long term is what the monarchy stands for.”
She also proved that she’ll defend the institution, sharply putting her foot down when Arsenault made insinuations about King Charles III’s position on slavery. “The modern context is very different,” she said. “Slavery hasn’t gone away. Don’t be too focused on timescales and periods. History isn’t like that.”
Princess Anne is pragmatic, acknowledging that there will be conversations about the relevance of the monarchy in the years to come—6s are great troubleshooters, always thinking of solutions, so it makes sense that rather than be surprised at the notion, the princess expects it…and probably has already deeply pondered it herself.
With the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we’ve seen the Edinburgh family step up to the plate, notably, Duchess Sophie. Whether she’s busy being a fashion icon in the wake of Kate Middleton’s absence or showing up to support the monarchs at important events , the Duchess of Edinburgh has become a welcome and steady presence.
In her past life (pre-royal), Sophie ran her own PR firm—sounds like an Enneagram 3 to me. The PR industry constructs images for people and brands…and who better to thrive than a personality that’s achievement-driven, image conscious and understands the stakes? Thus, royal life was an adjustment, as she was quoted in Tatler , “Certainly it took me a while to find my feet. The frustration was I had to reduce my expectations of what I could actually do. I couldn’t turn up at a charity and go, right, I think you should be doing this, because that’s what I was used to doing in my working life. I had to take a really big step back and go, OK, they want you to be the icing on the cake, the person to come in to thank their volunteers and funders, not necessarily to tell them how to run their communications plan.”
Another trait of Enneagram 3s is that, at their best, they become role models—and that certainly seems to be the case for the duchess. In The Daily Mail article about her niece-in-law, the Princess of Wales, English reports, “Seventeen years her senior, the countess is a confidante and a sounding board.” The writer notes that Sophie allegedly also reached out to Meghan after the latter said she was struggling a year into her tenure.
Ah, Fergie . When I caught up on all the projects she was up to, I immediately knew that the Duchess of York was an Enneagram 7. This personality is spontaneous, busy and always seeking new experiences. (I’ve also observed that many, if not all that I’ve encountered, have massive FOMO.) And indeed, the Duchess of York’s endeavors are a mile long. She splits her time between the U.S. and UK, is an author (with a 22-book deal !), had a Weight Watchers endorsement that lasted a decade, starred in a docuseries produced by Oprah and is a mom of two and grandmother of three. I’m personally sweating just thinking about it all.
It’s safe to say she isn’t slowing down any time soon, as Independent quoted her saying, vis-à-vis her books, “The duchess clearly has enormous fun writing them. ‘I kept saying to Marguerite, ‘No, no, Lady Mary must have satin red lingerie. So am I living vicariously through Lady Mary? Of course. Because it’s fabulous. It’s romantic. It’s sexy. It’s sassy. It’s saucy. I love it.’”
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