King Charles is reportedly planning to pass the Royal baton to his eldest son, Prince William, once the current 'tricky phase' for the monarchy is over, according to a Royal expert.
This comes as the King is trying to navigate the fallout from the ongoing spat with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who dramatically left the Royal Family in 2020.
In his early days as King, Charles had to handle his youngest son's fiery outbursts, which were aired in a revealing Netflix docuseries and followed by a series of shocking claims in his tell-all book, Spare.
Given these tough challenges and his advancing age, Charles, who recently turned 75 and is the oldest monarch to ever ascend to the throne, is thought to be preparing for his retirement.
Royal author Clive Irving told the Express US: "It may have already been secretly planned that the King will step down when he's 80."
He added: "He [Charles] wants to just have his moment in the spotlight for a few years, make sure that William and Harry are carried through what's going to be an incredibly difficult transitional phase for the monarchy."
"And then Camilla can retire to Balmoral and leave the show to William and Princess Kate. I suspect that's what's going to happen. I think it's not a quick enough changing of the guard, but it may be forced on them by circumstances, anyway, in the end."
Clive added that Charles feelts that it's his "duty to serve" especially having waited for so long, but he may still decide abdicate rather early on in his reign.
OK! have contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.
Clive's comments comes as the Royals are said to be involved in a row over their Christmas plans, after it was claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could potentially spend the festive season at Sandringham.
However, speaking about this possibility, former BBC Royal correspondent Jennie Bond has told OK! that this could lead to the Prince and Princess of Wales skipping the occasion.
She told us: "I can’t see how Charles could invite Harry and Meghan without causing major disruption and upsetting William and Kate, who would presumably refuse to attend.
"So I don’t think they will be invited for Christmas."
* This article was crafted with the help of an AI engine, which speeds up OK!'s editorial research and applies it to article templates created by journalists in our newsrooms. An OK! editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article