Does King Charles III have what it takes to wear the crown? | 60 Minutes Australia

it doesn't make the end of queen elizabeth's magnificent reign any less sad but three days on from her death there are already fewer tears and instead more applause and heartfelt thanks for her service 70 years in the job not only redefines the idea of devotion to duty it also guarantees her majesty will be remembered as one of the most admired women who's ever lived tonight attention turns to her successor the queen's eldest son now king charles iii has spent almost his entire life preparing for the mighty role he's inherited but as tara brown reports many people are already questioning how comfortably the crowd will fit him service is something that you you give yourself to people if you know particularly if they want you and sometimes if they don't want you if you feel that you can do something even if they think that you know you're not doing something very useful and you think you're right there then you couldn't be of service [Music] it's cruel fate that charles destiny to become king could only be realized with the death of the queen a birthright in waiting for almost a lifetime that promise of lifelong service i renew to you all today [Music] an inheritance that will forever be marked by sadness with the passing of a much-loved monarch but most wrenchingly the loss of an adored mother your majesty mommy first and foremost the royal family is a family how keenly is the loss of the queen being felt by those who knew her best and loved her most i mean i think the whole nation is shocked and very saddened and not only just a nation the whole world but as a as a family member we're all sad i mean it's great great loss having reached an extraordinary seventh decade as monarch the queen's death heralds a huge transition at 73 charles ascends the throne as the longest serving heir apparent in british history but speculation of who he will be as king has sent britain into somewhat of a national identity crisis i think the overwhelming emotion is certainly grief for the queen and i think it's nervous anticipation perhaps for king charles's reign so what does this mean what does the future look like what will the new king's reign look like what will the new king be like [Music] for many observers britain and the commonwealth are witnessing the end of a golden era the death of queen elizabeth may well signal the death of the monarchy itself ongoing scandal and family feuding feeding the new republican debate we should have enough respect and love for australia and its people our people our australian family to say that our head of state should be one of us will king charles more polarizing than popular be the sovereign to save or destroy the realm when you said you believed that charles was a risk to the monarchy what did you mean by that charles is a controversial man and also a conservative man his uh life has been bedogged by the death of diana and also by his own personality and character he's an olympic winger a man who constantly complains but for his supporters and friends king charles is the perfect fit for the times i'm very excited about him being king i want him to be our king of the environment he has for so long supported all sorts of environmental causes long before many other people were interested and now is the most excellent opportunity for him to lead that charge at buckingham palace which for 62 years has seen no royal birth his royal highness the baby is born behind these windows queen elizabeth was just a princess when on the 14th of november 1948 she and prince philip welcomed charles into the world at lovely wendell chamois their recently acquired country home at sunnydale princess elizabeth and prince philip spend a happy afternoon with the world's most famous baby the world he arrived in wasn't to be sneezed at a place of extraordinary privilege and attention but in three short years his mother became queen with the shock death of her father king george vi public service and long separations from her children became an even bigger part of royal life here's wishing a very important young gentleman many happy returns of the day on his third birthday it's unfortunate that mother and father are not here to share it with him but what a party they'll have when they do get back it was a childhood prince charles would later describe as painful for its loneliness a pain that only got worse when he was sent to gordenstein his father's old boarding school in scotland which charles likened to a german concentration camp calling it colditz in kilts alongside prince charles johnny stonebrow was a student there for four years do you think it was a good fit for prince charles many people have said that it was probably not the ideal school to send the young prince to and i'm inclined to agree with that and i have quite a strong memory of the prince walking alone he was not a particularly gregarious person anyway and i think that he did miss his home and i think he was homesick and i think that he was isolated yeah cementing the isolation whether it was at mealtime or on the playground fellow students avoided the prince so as not to themselves become targets of the bullies who clearly relished having a young royal in their sights i actually saw one particular incident where he was attacked playing rugby in the scrum and scrums are rough places anyway but i could see that they were pulling his ears for example and he got punched but the interesting thing is and it left a strong impression on me even at the time was that he was very stoic he never complained he didn't whinge he didn't cry he didn't do anything that other people might have done in the circumstances he just got on with it did he fight back absolutely not no he was not that sort of person he was quite a gentle soul and once you got to know him a little bit better actually a remarkably nice person and he certainly didn't fight back and at the time did you see that as a sign of strength or a sign of weakness that's a very interesting question i think that i saw it as a sign of strength but it also made him vulnerable and sometimes one wished perhaps that he did retaliate a little more instead of being so stoic but that's not his nature it was in australia where the teenage prince felt better understood when he was sent to the exclusive geelong grammar's timber top school for two terms years later he fondly recalled his time there as the start of his love affair with australia part of my own education took place here in australia quite frankly it was by far the best part while i was here i had the pommy bits bashed off me like chips of an old block when he came back after he'd been in australia you know he did remarkably well and he ended up as head boy of gordonston and then he went to cambridge so i think in some ways the the australian experience really helped him and he found himself in australia it seems australia helped the young prince find his funny bone and the confidence to share it even in the classroom but i remember one particular incident when the prince enjoyed the goon show and he used to imitate them and suddenly from the back of the class you would hear this voice saying what time is it echols and then the reply would be i don't know eight o'clock and this would of course make us all laugh and that was something that he used to do a man of humor and deep introspection i think i got quite a large one here it's very very large indeed a conservationist with extravagant tastes a humanitarian who could also be a bully how will the prince of contradictions fare as king for unauthorized biographer tom bower this ultimate changing of the guard will see a fundamental shift in charles for a man who's been waiting in the wings for so long how easy or difficult do you believe the transition will be for him from prince to king his challenge is enormous i think he will rise to the challenge because he's been preparing for it for 70 years this has been this is his moment this is when he can prove himself this is when there will be the charles of history which he wants to make sure lasts forever in all our history books he is determined to succeed he's had to waste a long time for it he's not going to blow it now charles was born to be king destined to follow in his mother's footsteps even as a young man charles showed a similar sense of duty [Music] in a moving ceremony charles was sworn in as the prince of wales by the queen when he was 20. i charles prince of wales to become your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship he then impressed and surprised many when he addressed the crowds in welsh having studied the language for just 6 weeks [Music] when he took on the role of prince of wales charles made a commitment to serve it's a commitment his second cousin lord ivor mountbatten says charles has tried to fulfill all his life you know how keenly has he felt the responsibility of his role i mean the motto actually is i serve ich dain i believe and that is the motto on the the coat of arms of the prince of wales and uh throughout his whole life i think when you appreciate that you are going to assume the mantle of kingship you know you are slightly different so he was very conscious of the fact that he was going to be king and and taken his responsibilities very seriously in so doing iva believes charles has created a perception of himself that isn't complete he appears aloof but as i know him he certainly isn't and in a family environment everybody behaves very differently than your public perception what do you think the difference is between the public persona and the private man actually i i suppose warmth sometimes on television you can't appreciate the warmth of a person but he's exceedingly caring chap the charles has also earned a reputation for being eccentric and out of touch according to author tom bower who wrote the unauthorized biography the rebel prince he's a man who is frightfully self-indulgent his eating habits his travel habits his extravagance his unwillingness to actually understand that he looks sometimes faintly ridiculous his commitment to complementary medicine where he believed that cancer could be cured by coffee enemas was bizarre and an admission he speaks to his much-loved plants had him tagged the looney prince a title charles skillfully poked fun at only the other day i was inquiring of an entire bed of um old-fashioned roses who were forced forced to listen to my demented ramblings on uh on the meaning of the universe as i sat crosslegged in the lotus position on the gravel path in front of them a more serious passion has been his charity work through the prince's trust how do you bring uh hope and and and some sort of inspiration to people who so often living in the sort of conditions and circumstances is where there's appears to be no no hope patrol he's worked tirelessly to create jobs and a future for the underprivileged and unwell as witnessed by his wife camilla he feels everything inside that's why he gets things done he's pretty impatient uh he wants things done by yesterday as i think everybody who works for him will tell you but um that's how he gets things done he's driven by this this passion inside him to really help help he wants to really wants to say that he would like to save the world but his remarkable efforts have not come without controversy problem with his charities has brought huge controversy because the financing of those charities has always meant raising money from very controversial characters often criminals but very rich and he sold access to himself to get the money to finance his charities so with everything that charles has done on the one hand good there has also been a negative and a bad it's after one of my rare opportunities to stir things up to throw a proverbial royal brick through the inviting plate glass of pompous professional pride charles's willingness to use his position of power to influence and pressure those in the realm of politics has caused great concern according to royal historian professor anna whitelock there is certainly a backstory with charles where it's been released what were known as the spider letters because of his rather spidery handwriting he was writing to ministers and advocating for certain causes and so over the years there has been some pushback about the fact that he seemed to be intervening in politics meddling in a way that really he shouldn't that said that there isn't a constitutional position as prince of wales which formally precluded him from doing that some people have accused you of meddling really you don't say but i always wonder what meddling is i mean i always thought it was motivating but i've always been intrigued if it's meddling to worry about the inner cities as i did 40 years ago what was happening or not happening there the conditions in which people were living if that's meddling i'm very proud of it but as monarch and as modeled by the supremely discreet queen elizabeth the new role by law brings new restrictions is it a difficult line for him to walk because he has been so outspoken about these issues before and he has been political do you think that he can keep that in check there is of course as monarch as a constitutional monarch he needs to remain above the fray of politics and i think over the years he's always said that you know on becoming king he would very much step into his mother's shoes and absolutely understand the limitations of his position as constitutional mono [Music] the idea somehow that i'm going to go on exactly the same way if i have to succeed is complete nonsense because the two the two situations are completely different [Music] because of course people have expressed worries about whether this involvement will continue in the same way no it won't i'm not that stupid i do realize that it is a separate exercise being sovereign it's of course uh you know i understand entirely how that should operate that indestructible plastic there are many though who hope as king charles will continue to address the calamity of climate change a cause he's been publicly committed to since the seventies [Music] you must understand the vast importance of all these remarkable natural ecosystems they are our life support system but do you think we've begun to turn the corner now not yet are we on climate change we're running out of time because the necessary action hasn't been taken has it that's the problem and i cannot believe that people can simply pay no attention to to science they accept it in every other aspect of modern existence the evidence but apparently not the climate change i think the environment does actually give him the space to be much more sort of political with a small p if he can champion himself as an environmental monarch who can speak out sort of a politically as is required of a constitutional monarch but at the same time speaking into what are becoming increasingly political and global issues i think he really could find a space and a voice for himself and in that sense find a kind of new relevance and new purpose uh for the monarchy we must put nature back at the heart of the equation is he going to be perhaps more relevant a monarch than you expected look i think king charles will do his best to be unbelievably relevant and a man who sears his name on history coming to the throne so late in life charles will have much less time than the queen to make his mark but he's not wasted the years leading to this moment i charles iii the speeches were written a long time the gestures were planned decades ago and then refined endlessly so what is happening now is the unfolding of a plan which has been much in gestation long in thought deep in thought and a lot of work has gone into making sure that when charles is crowned when charles speaks when charles travels that everything is synchronized just to make sure that the monarchy is embedded that his reign is unchallenged that his position in the commonwealth in australia is secure all that has been thought through very very carefully uh the house of windsor has survived for a thousand years and his job will be to make sure that it survives his lifetime and his children and grandchildren's too [Applause] [Music] king charles may be the man of the moment speaking to younger people here um people sort of 18 19 and in their early 20s who weren't alive when diana was but because of the netflix drama have a huge amount of sympathy for diana i mean they see her as a sort of martyr marilyn monroe type figure [Music] with a crown of glory and righteousness with heavy a right face and manifold fruit of good work queen elizabeth ruled for 70 years winning the affection and admiration of millions around the world towards the end of her reign charles increasingly performed royal duties to support his mother his role and reputation as the shadow king earning newfound respect it is my sincere wish that one day the prince of wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949 but it is the shadow of the past that threatens to undo charles good work according to royal historian professor anna whitelock for many people it was the marriage to princess diana that 1981 wedding that was beamed around the world and the subsequent very public divorce and then tragic death of diana that really has defined oh of an advantage 100 um they get on famously they have a a good laugh together and so if you've got a happy monarch then hopefully you have a a happy country um so no it's a is without doubt is an advantage is the country fond of camilla i think i mean she had a tough start clearly the princess of wales was exceedingly popular but you know anybody marrying into the royal family historically has had a very rough time anybody who really gives it some thought can understand that you know being the prince of wales or the or the king as he is now you know it's a tough gig and you do need to have somebody by your side and she's done a great job and i think as a result she has become you know much loved and you know people really appreciate that he's a very exceptional man they see him as a very serious person which he is but i would like a lot of people to see the lighter side three chairs for the royal party outside the family while public opinion of camilla and charles has somewhat softened not all has been forgiven despite the years and the hard work camilla has been gradually rehabilitated over the years and it has been a long long process and she was vilified she was described as the rottweiler she was all over the press she really was you know the other woman and talked about in the worst possible way but she has very much been patient and loyal to to prince charles and hasn't pushed herself forward has known her place but it was very interesting speaking to younger people here people sort of 18 19 and in their early 20s who weren't alive when diana was but because of the netflix drama have a huge amount of sympathy for diana i mean they see her as a sort of martyr marilyn monroe type figure and when i was speaking to them they you know were really critical of prince charles the reaction has been literally fantastic and i've never seen so many people around and such friendliness and overwhelming right from the start people wanted to believe in the fairy tale as prince charles and lady diana spencer acknowledged in an interview in 1981 discussing their upcoming wedding so i can't wait for the whole thing i want everybody to come out you know having had a marvelous musical and emotional experience a painfully shy 19 year old diana revealed the early pressure to adapt to the spotlight i don't you find that after another six months you're beginning to get used to it just please it is i suppose one of the most important things you're going to have to adjust to really isn't it of course and prince charles has been a great help to you in that video tower of strength gracious i have to say that because you're sitting there i'm sure you would anyway [Applause] [Music] it was the wedding the world watched take the charles paul and to the world their union brought magic to the monarchy at what stage going to the cathedral actually during the service at what stage did you get the idea that it was becoming an enormous success so that you could enjoy it enjoy something like that it's terrifying such a long walk up that alpha start no i'm only [Music] uh cheesy were married and at that time everybody was saying good luck and i hope everything goes well and how lucky you are to be engaged to such a lovely lady and my goodness i was lucky enough to marry her and we had many many masters it's amazing what ladies do when you're baxter two years into their marriage and with nine month old william in tow diana and charles brought their charm offensive to australia it may have been a baptism of fire for diana but she quickly made her way into the hearts of royalists to be forever remembered as the people's princess by the time i left australia i felt that actually being able to achieve something i was so amazed that i was capable of that um you've got a plastic whale that throws things out the top little balls i just think australians are marvelous people and very easy to get on with i rather like the false frightness because it means you can be fairly forthright back again and you know that's quite fun and but it was charles's lack of forthrightness at home the doomed the marriage even before it began according to author tom bower well charles played the diana card wrong right from the outset first of all he should never have married her because he didn't love her secondly they were just completely ill-suited and thirdly he very quickly showed his envy of her especially in australia during that famous visit in the early 80s [Music] the children made it clear in the direct way that only children have that it was the princess they wanted on their side of the road she was so popular and he was jealous that she was attracting all the attention and he wasn't to the outside world with their two adorable sons [Music] the stage was set for the war of the wales [Music] with diana recording secret briefings for author andrew morton on her husband's affair with camilla i was terrified and i said i know what's going on between you and charles and i just wanted to know that and she said to me very interesting she said to me you've got everything you've ever wanted you've got um all men in the world fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children what would you want so i said i want my husband did you try to be faithful and honorable to your wife when you took on the vow of marriage yes absolutely and you were yes until it became irretrievably broken down us both having tried it's a proven relationship um this you know it wasn't just a kind of affair that hasn't then translated into a marriage and i think most people would agree that you know they are soul mates and camilla was the love of prince charles as he was then his life and i think you would imagine that you know times would have moved on decades have passed since diana's death but it does have real potency in the popular discourse and i think that charles becoming king is just going to revive that whole discussion really and the memory of diana because of course there will always be the what ifs and the what ifs you know if diana hadn't died and if diana had remained married to charles we would have queen diana now and you can imagine that the echoes of that will also be around in the next few weeks and it is amazing that that's still around and pervasive but it is and it is not just around the generations that remember diana but actually younger generations too even though at the time diana admitted to her own infidelity 25 years after her death her influence in the palace and amongst the people remains strong prince of wales and duchess of cornwall so strong the queen felt the need to let the public know that on her death she wished for camilla as king charles wife to be given the title of queen the carefully planned move was to prevent potential hostility the royal household will continue to monitor i think the buckingham palace those around charles are going to be watching and observing very carefully how people are reacting to him it really will be about the temperature of the public's response will it i think it will largely be about that i mean i think there's no doubt that charles would want to have camilla officially by his side and have her crowned queen and it would in a sense draw a line under the past it would also acknowledge camilla as his wife and for all the the work that she's done supporting him and supporting the queen latterly um in the royal family and for the monarchy but they are not going to want to risk a big public backlash while the past may still haunt the present observers believe king charles will be focused on the future doing all he can to rebuff a renewed republican debate in australia and throughout the commonwealth should now a head of state be an aussie we are smart enough it was certainly old enough we can take it from here we can take it from here thanks we can take it from here [Music] with the passing of the queen how healthy do you believe the monarchy is can it survive the death of the queen well certainly it can and and i'm sure it will i guess the obvious question for australia is should we continue to have the british monarch as our head of state [Music] you accept that the republicans have a better chance this time around with king charles and no i don't you know the republicans if they want to try again will we say well bring it on try again we'll have we'll keep having the fight because i just don't think australians um are at that mindset like many around the world queensland liberal national party mp jared blay is mourning the death of queen elizabeth it was a terrible loss and her majesty epitomised what a monarch in a constitutional monarchy should be and does she's been an inspiration to many people around the world she was an inspiration to many women around the world and so it's it's a terrible loss and people will be grieving for for a long period of time when his party was in office as a committed monarchist and attorney general of queensland at the time jared gave back to barristers the title option of queen's council and renamed courts in her majesty's honor with her death he leads the young monarchists league in a rallying cry against any republicans emboldened by the queen's passing so i'm looking forward to the future of our constitutional monarchy and like you all do everything i can to defend it in queensland and australia and young people right around australia will uh will will join us in that in that fight and the fight is inevitable it will come when it will come i have no idea but we're up to the challenge and the young monikers league is a fighting force of close to 50 000 devotees and it seems they're as passionate about king charles as they were the queen i was two people away from prince charles and we just stood by as king charles or prince charles at the time he walked by and shook all of our hands and i remember the conversation i had with him and i was just so star struck he's like oh you know how do you do it i'm like oh i'm okay thank you what sort of a king do you think charles will make i think he'll grow in to the role and i think he'll be marvelous what qualities do you think he has that makes you judge him to be marvelous as king i think he's kind i think he's generous courteous uh i've met him a couple of occasions and i've seen how he treats people he'll be very different he has used his role as as formerly prince of wales to modernize and i suspect he'll bring that into his new role as his majesty the king i first came here to australia 46 years ago the issue for australia is not whether charles is a good person because he is the issue is whether we should have a englishman or woman a citizen of another country as our head of state and vote yes for our republic in 1999 former prime minister malcolm turnbull then head of the republican movement urged australia to cut ties with the queen by voting yes in the referendum on a republic this is the proudest moment of my life it was a campaign to which a slim majority 55 of australians said no would that argument have been easier for you to make at the time of the 1999 referendum if charles had been on the throne at the time oh certainly well it would have been yes the answer is yes clearly because the queen has you know has had such an extraordinary uh standing a very long reign universal respect um yeah without any doubt the argument for change was always harder when the queen was uh on the throne malcolm turnbull and jared blay might be on the same side of politics today but 20 odd years ago they were on opposite sides of the debate with a 17 year old jared handing out vote no cards i was in year 11 in 1999 and i was standing at the front of calandra state high school which was my my school and i was handing out vote no to the republic and from there my passion's grown in terms of defending the constitutional monarchy that we have in australia i think it sustains us well would you like to be king of australia um [Music] well put it this way i i um [Music] as i say i've always had a you know great affection for australia and for australians and uh i'm not all i've ever tried to do as far as australia is concerned is to is to try and help and encourage from his early days at geelong grandma's timber tops i'm having again switch the lights out in the dormitories and all i got were cries of pommy bastard to trips with mum and dad or flying the royal flag solo there's a guard of honor of 16 lifesavers for business all for pleasure charles has been a frequent visitor to our shores [Music] if there was more of me i could send one of me to australia and another one to wherever else it is to try and do all the things that i i would love to be able to do it was 1994 when ray martin spoke to charles about the growing push for australia to break away from the crown but do you care in some cases i think it's up to um it's up to australians to decide how they want it to be it's not up to me to decide i mean for goodness sake things have changed i'm enough of a historian to realize that but let's just avoid the insults and the unnecessary cat calling and all that sort of thing because as i've said all we are interested in is actually helping australia we are not trying to make money out of it or sort of hang on to it as if it was some toy but british author tom bower expects now that charles is king his position has dramatically changed and he will work very hard to retain ties between the two nations one shouldn't underestimate how scheming charles is and how thoughtful he is to maintain his legacy he will not want to be the king that oversees the breakup of the commonwealth or the monarchy he will do his best to maintain the connection with australia let's talk about australia's next head of state in our current system even before the queen died the australian republican movement was again publicly agitating for change advertising a model on how to replace the monarch with our own head of state tom bower believes this has given urgency to the new king's plans we can take it from here we can take it from here you my anticipator will go quickly out to australia and new zealand to seal attempt to seal the bonds again he is a stout campaigner william is even better william kate of course will be promoted by the uh by the palace as the face of the future uh that will be key uh to the campaign australia sending kaizen william there with their children perhaps to show that the links are indivisible and can't be broken i think now as charles extends the throne william and kate are going to be absolutely crucial in supporting him and will be very active working royals royal historian professor anna whitelock believes that while charles long delayed ascension to the throne may not engender great excitement it's the star power of these younger oils that will keep the commonwealth intact i'm not sure that people are there yet and i think the apathy might be sufficient to keep charles on the throne for now with people believing and holding out perhaps for the future king william and thinking that that might represent something different can you see us going to a referendum not in the short term no and i don't think the republicans want to rush off to a referendum unless they categorically think they can win it because if it if they do a referendum again and it fails then hopefully it'll kick into long grass for many many many years and never never have the debate again australia will not become a republic on the 1st of january does it frustrate you i look it i wouldn't say it frustrates me it disappoints me but i i did say in 1999 that if we if we vote no it'll mean no for a very long time in the discharge of these duties i will be guided by the council of their elected parliaments uh but i think the next opportunity uh is now because clearly it's a big change of circumstance you can't get around that it is a big change of circumstance but is it a big issue for most australians well again time will tell uh i think this is an enormous watershed it's a very sad time but it's also a time when people will give thanks for this extraordinary woman's extraordinary reign and extraordinary service so you know i i think that's there's going to be a period of reflection and focusing on that and then i think australians will say okay you know the queen is dead long lived the king but do we really want to have a british monarch a british aristocrat as our head of state as loved as the queen was there is no doubt charles has inherited a monarchy tainted by scandal and discord while matters abroad may be troubling it's the issues at home that pose the greater risk he will make sure that those who in any way undermine the credibility and honesty and image of the monarchy are cast out he'll be ruthless about that [Music] at just four charles was with his mother when on her coronation she was first presented to the world as britain's young queen all these years later he was with her again as she made what would be her final appearance on the palace balcony [Applause] regrettably it comes as a result of the death of your mother of your parent which is you know not so nice to say the least his is a destiny tinged with sadness but waiting almost all his life to fulfill it charles is perhaps the most prepared monarch britain has ever had and i had the most terrible trouble in keeping you know he had in queen elizabeth he certainly had an extraordinary guide the bond between master and apprentice between mother and son growing ever stronger as the years mounted your majesty mommy this double act comfortably at peace with each other and if i may say so majesty thank god the weather turned out fine but now as king charles will be on his own confronting the controversies that cast a paul over the last years of queen elizabeth's reign the disgraced prince andrew stripped of his titles by the queen earlier this year will not be given a second chance by his brother according to unauthorized biographer and investigative journalist tom bower along with allegations of sexual abuse which the prince settled for an undisclosed sum the friendship forged between the prince and the pedophile jeffrey epstein while he was alive is judged to be an immovable stain charles made absolutely clear that andrew is out andrew has destroyed his own reputation charles has always disliked andrew's ex-wife fergie the duchess of york he hates vulgarity he hates ostentatiousness the decision by harry and megan to separate from the royal family and to continue taking public pot shots at the monarchy and charles is a more painful dilemma for the new king i thought my family would help but every single ask request warning whatever it is just got met with total silence or total neglect the family split is heartbreaking when you're reminded of how close father and son once seemed [Music] can you see a future role for prince harry i think prince harry like prince andrew has cast himself into the darkness i think that he is now very happy in california he has dug his own grave or built his own mountain whichever way you see it um i think the british although they loved harry and he was by far the most popular of the royal family have become extraordinarily disillusioned by his criticism both of the royal family and of his father his grandmother and by his antics oh really please so both harry and andrew will be wiped out airbrushed out of the story of the british royal family do you expect king charles to be as popular as queen elizabeth well you know a change is always difficult isn't it and and and nobody likes change but i suspect um charles king charles will become exceedingly popular as time goes on lord ivor mountbatten the king's second cousin believes charles eventual popularity will be born out of respect as a man who even as prince of wales was prepared to make hard decisions that directly affected family like minimizing the size of the monarchy the public perception particularly after the princes of wales died was there were too many hangers on and that the monarchy really didn't need to slim down so all the wider family and cousins like myself and my brother and all our cousins you know were sort of sidelined which is absolutely the correct thing to do i solemnly promise so to do [Music] as king in waiting for the past 70 years charles ascension to the throne may not offer a fresh start nor may he ever win the public devotion bestowed upon the queen may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest but passionate about the environment and the underprivileged he may just be a surprise sovereign bringing modernity and relevancy to the monarchy [Music] charles is a very intelligent and educated man he's got many failings but his determination to ensure that the molecule survives i think he's there and he can do it of course he can do it he is determined to succeed he's had to wait a long time for it he's not going to blow it now [Music] hello i'm tara brown thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on nine now dot com dot a u and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 3,439,855

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, king, queen, charles, elizabeth, king charles iii, queen elizabeth ii, prince harry, prince william, meghan, markle, kate, middleton, prince andrew, royal, royal family, buckingham palace, britain, monarch, death, funeral, throne, crown

Id: 2Z5WCz4ulCc

Length: 52min 53sec (3173 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022