For many, it is believed that when Queen Elizabeth II sadly passes away, Prince Charles will step aside to allow his son Prince William to become King.
But in a new tell-all book entitled, ‘Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life’, author Sally Bedell Smith details the likelihood of a very different succession.
“Charles will be King and Camilla will be Queen,” she writes. “They will not skip over to William, who is being groomed to become King probably in his late 40s or early 50s.”
The news may come as a surprise to many, who hope that Prince Charles will allow his 34-year-old son to become The Monarch. But according to Bedell Smith, decades of underlying pressure from his father 'alpha male' Prince Philip, have resulted in Prince Charles' desire to be crowned.
"His childhood marked him in ways I fully didn't understand," she revealed to Town & Country in an exclusive interview. "When he was eight years old, he visited the Mountbatten estate for a formal lunch and the attendees were all eating wild strawberries. Charles was methodically picking the stems off the berries. Lord Mountbatten told him, 'No, no. You hold them by the stems to dip in the sugar.'"
"And there this poor little boy was, trying to reattach the stems. He just wanted approval," Smith added.
And the biography further explores the power struggle between father and son, as it was recently revealed that Charles 'wept' to sleep the night before his wedding to the late Princess Diana, as he felt pressured into the marriage by the Duke of Edinburgh.
If Prince Charles does become the King, it is also likely that Camilla Parker-Bowles will take the title of Queen despite the controversy surrounding their public affair.
On his wife Camilla, Bedell Smith adds: “I think she's made a lot of progress … but she's not necessarily beloved."
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