10. The Prince Regent Was Obese and Possibly Syphilitic
The Prince Regent had a deep and abiding love for food. In his older years, his typical breakfast was reportedly champagne, port, brandy, a pie containing two or three pigeons, five steaks, and an egg. His breakfast alone was thousands of calories. The Prince Regent was reportedly almost 300 pounds later in life with a 50-inch waist and was ridiculed in the press as the Prince of Whales. Prince George was so fond of food he hired the first celebrity chef, Marie-Antoine Carême, who worked for both Napoleon and the Prince Regent during his career.
In addition to food, the Prince Regent was also quite fond of women. He was a noted womanizer and had many affairs during his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick. They lived separately for most of their marriage, and the Prince Regent had a lifelong relationship with the widowed Maria Fitzherbert in addition to other noble women including several Marchionesses. Much like his father, George IV’s later life was marked by declining mental health that was possibly due to syphilis infection. It is said that the Prince Regent frequented prostitutes, which could easily have led to infection with syphilis. Towards the end of his life, the obese and possibly syphilitic George took vast quantities of laudanum, an opiate, to deal with the pain of his gout and various other ailments.