Prepping for a new era. Prince Charles isn’t king yet, but he’s already thinking about how he might change the monarchy once he takes the throne.
“Prince Charles will make some changes,” royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti exclusively told Us Weekly of the 73-year-old royal on Tuesday, March 1. “It’s always been rumored that he wants to slim down the working royals at the core of the family.”
The royal family has already undergone some major structural changes in recent years, but Sacerdoti believes Queen Elizabeth II‘s eldest son will “formalize the slimming down” so that it doesn’t just seem like the “result of circumstances.”
One such change was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s exit as senior working royals, which the couple announced in early 2020. The couple, who tied the knot in May 2018, made their royal departure permanent in February 2021.
Since their exit, the Invictus Games founder, 37, and the Suits alum, 40, haven’t shied away from speaking about the difficulties they experienced while they were still part of the monarchy. During a bombshell interview that aired on CBS in March 2021, Harry said he believed that his father and his brother, Prince William, were both “trapped” within the confines of the royal family.
Earlier this year, Charles’ brother Prince Andrew lost his royal titles after he faced a sexual assault lawsuit brought by one of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers. The Duke of York, 62, agreed to a settlement out of court last month for an undisclosed amount of money.
Sacerdoti, for his part, thinks Charles is “looking forward to being the king” despite the further loss of privacy that will come with the expanded role. The royal has also gotten some additional practice over the past few months as his mother, 95, has struggled with various health issues.
“Prince Charles has always been a hardworking royal and Prince William too, but the more they get to do now, the more the baton is being handed over,” Sacerdoti explained to Us. “They’re getting used to some of those roles for when they themselves are monarch.”
The queen canceled several appearances in October 2021 after spending one night in the hospital. “The Queen has reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement at the time.
More recently, the sovereign tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting with Charles, who recently battled the disease for a second time. She recovered quickly, however, and was spotted spending time with her family on Sunday, February 27.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
