Harry: No one in my family really wants the throne
Modernising prince says British public and the world need institutions like the monarchy
No one in the Royal family really wants to be king or queen, Prince Harry has suggested, as he vowed they would carry out their duty for the “greater good of the people”. Prince Harry, 32, said his family were “not doing this for ourselves”, as he spoke of trying to maintain an ordinary life.
NO ONE in the Royal family really wants to be king or queen, Prince Harry has suggested, as he vowed they would carry out their duty for the “greater good of the people”.
Prince Harry, 32, said his family were “not doing this for ourselves”, as he spoke of trying to maintain an ordinary life alongside his extraordinary duties.
Saying he is now involved in modernising the British monarchy, he added that the young Royals were determined to continue the “positive atmosphere” his grandmother the Queen had inspired for more than 60 years.
In an interview with Newsweek, an American magazine, he said: “We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people…
“Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don’t think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time.”
Describing how he tries hard to maintain normality by doing his own supermarket shopping, he admitted making the royal family accessible was a “tricky balancing act”, saying: “We don’t want to dilute the magic. The British public and the whole world need institutions like it.”
But he added: “My mother took a huge part in showing me an ordinary life, including taking me and my brother to see homeless people.
“Thank goodness I’m not completely cut off from reality.
“People would be amazed by the ordinary life William and I live. I do my own shopping. Sometimes, when I come away from the meat counter in my local supermarket, I worry someone will snap me with their phone.
“But I am determined to have a relatively normal life, and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too. Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping.”
The Prince also spoke of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, and her 1997 funeral when he was just 12.
“My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television,” he said. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
In the interview at Kensington Palace, he said: “I am now fired up and energised and love charity stuff, meeting people and making them laugh.
“I sometimes still feel I am living in a goldfish bowl, but I now manage it better. I still have a naughty streak too, which I enjoy and is how I relate to those individuals who have got themselves into trouble.”
He added he “knows instinctively” which charities his mother would have liked him to work for, joking: “Sometimes, I can have too much passion.
“It has got me into trouble in the past, partly because I cannot stand the idea of people mincing around the subject rather than just getting on with it.”
Prince Harry, along with other senior Royals, has gradually taken on more official duties, aiding the Queen and fighting for his own charitable causes.
Saying he feels in a hurry to “make something of my life”, he said of his choice to focus on key causes: “The Queen has been fantastic in letting us choose. She tells us to take our time and really think things through.
“We use our time wisely. We don’t want to turn up, shake hands but not get involved.”
The full interview is available in
Newsweek now.