Britain's Prince Charles says: I won't meddle when I am king

LONDON: Britain’s Prince Charles said he will stop speaking out on issues he feels strongly about when he becomes king as he is “not that stupid”.

Speaking ahead of his 70th birthday next week, the son of 92 year-old Queen Elizabeth said that the role of monarch was completely different to his current position as Prince of Wales.

“The idea, somehow, that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense because the two – the two situations – are completely different,” he told the BBC.

Asked whether his public campaigning will continue, he said: “No, it won’t. I’m not that stupid.”

Beside his outspoken views, Charles faced intrigue around the acrimonious end to his marriage to first wife, Princess Diana, and hostility in some quarters to his second wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Camilla told the BBC that his drive to get things done spurred his activism.

“He would like to save the world,” she said

Charles’ supporters say his causes – such as helping disadvantaged young people find work, inter-faith dialogue and campaigning against throwaway plastic – are often prescient.

But other views, such as his support for complementary medicine, still attract scorn.

In 2013, it was revealed he had held 36 meetings with government ministers over three years, while two years later, Britain’s top court ruled that dozens of his letters to ministers – dubbed the ‘black spider memos’ because of his scrawled handwriting – could be released.

Topics included rural housing, food in hospitals and the fate of the Patagonian Toothfish.

His son, William, said that he would like Charles to spend more time with his grandchildren.

“When he’s there, he’s brilliant,” William said. “We need him there as much as possible.”