EXCLUSIVE: Real Reason King Charles' Gardeners are Deserting Monarch Revealed — And How It’s Linked to His 'Paranoid-Inducing Cannabis Use'
King Charles' gardeners are said to have called it quits over the royal's concerning behavior.
July 29 2025, Published 9:30 a.m. ET
Green-fingered King Charles is in the brown stuff after it emerged he has bullied his gardeners into quitting their jobs.
RadarOnline.com can now reveal the shocking reason behind his moodiness, his cannabis use to treat his cancer is leaving him paranoid, as well as irritable when he can't get his hands on enough wacky baccy.
Courtiers tell us it's a "sad state of affairs" as Charles, 76, has long seen his garden as a sanctuary.
"I actually planned everything myself, I did the whole thing, I chose all the plants," the monarch has bragged behind the scenes. But according to multiple sources close to Highgrove House, the king's longtime retreat in Gloucestershire is no longer the tranquil haven it once was, at least not for those working behind its famous hedgerows.
'He Can Fly Off The Handle'
Charles has been using cannabis to help ease his cancer symptoms.
Over the past three years, 11 of the 12 gardeners tasked with maintaining the 15-acre estate have left their posts, citing low wages, physical strain, and what one former staffer called "an atmosphere of fear and micromanagement."
Now, insiders are raising a more unusual concern: the king's increasing reliance on cannabis to ease cancer symptoms, which some claim is contributing to erratic mood swings and paranoid behavior when the drug is unavailable.
"He can be perfectly lovely one day and then fly off the handle the next," said a source close to the estate.
"When he's off the cannabis, he gets tense and impatient, especially if the garden isn't exactly how he left it. It's like walking on eggshells." The source, who has worked with members of the royal household for over a decade, said concerns are growing about what they describe as signs of dependency.
"People are starting to question whether it's still about medical relief, or something else," they claimed.
All About Cannabis?
Charles is reportedly growing a small cannabis crop in a greenhouse at Highgrove.
Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis in February and has continued light royal duties while receiving outpatient treatment. Buckingham Palace has not disclosed the exact form of cancer but confirmed he began using alternative therapies, including cannabis oil.
According to two individuals familiar with the matter, the king first experimented with it on the advice of a private Swiss physician and now uses it regularly.
While the Palace has insisted the use is tightly controlled and doctor-approved, its effect on morale at Highgrove has been significant, according to multiple former staff.
"He becomes hyper-focused on tiny details and leaves these red-ink notes that feel more like reprimands than feedback," said one gardener who left in late 2023. "Some days, he'd obsess over a single delphinium being an inch too low."
Eleven out of twelve gardeners have quit Highgrove in the past three years.
In March 2022, half of the gardening team was reportedly on minimum wage. A grievance filed later that year described an overwhelmed team working through physical injuries.
"There is little management of HMTK's (His Majesty the King's) expectations, and I know I would not be allowed to say we are understaffed," the employee wrote.
One confrontation allegedly occurred when the gardener suggested hiring a specialist to help cultivate magnolias, prompting a dressing down from Constantine Innemee, 62, Highgrove's executive director and a longtime confidant of the King.
A spokesperson for The King's Foundation has said the estate took "staff welfare extremely seriously" and called turnover "well below the national average." They added that the Foundation regularly reviews pay benchmarks and has doubled Highgrove's operating profit since 2022.
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His gardeners say he has become moody and hard to work with.
But behind the scenes, a different picture is emerging. "It's not just about the notes or the long hours anymore," claimed another former employee. "It's the feeling that his moods are being dictated by whether or not he's had access to cannabis. That's what really started to worry people."
RadarOnline.com recently revealed Charles is growing his own crop of cannabis in the grounds of his beloved Highgrove country pile as he turns to the drug to ease the ravages of cancer. Courtiers say the monarch is cultivating his supply of weed at his Highgrove House stately home.
A royal expert told us: "Charles has always led a very healthy lifestyle and so he has been particularly angered and irked by his cancer diagnosis but also, as a result of his love and deep knowledge of all things natural, he's looked at cannabis as a means of fighting the disease and also of killing the pain the cancer is causing him.
"He is a very open-minded chap and doesn't shut himself off to any form of cure or pain relief, so that end he's been tending a little crop of cannabis in one of the greenhouses at Highgrove.
"But it's nothing too large, I don't think he's going to start selling the stuff in the Highgrove House shop, otherwise the local police might come knocking on his door!"
