Prince Charles a fun grandpa
In a documentary to mark his 70th birthday, Prince William and Prince Harry pay tribute to their father
PRINCE William wishes his workaholic father could spend more time with his grandchildren, the documentary to mark Charles’s 70th birthday shows. The Prince of Wales is described as a “brilliant” grandfather who will spend hours crawling on the floor and making silly noises with his little granddaughter and grandsons.
But the prince can be distracted, because he is so dedicated to his work “to the extent that his sons say he sometimes falls asleep with the documents he is reading stuck to his face”.
HANDS-ON GRANDFATHER
Asked whether his father has “time to be a grandfather on top of everything else”, William answers carefully.
In recent years, Charles is said to have privately expressed his frustration that he doesn’t get to see as much of his grandchildren as the Middleton family, a claim his aides have dismissed.
But his elder son makes clear it that he would like to have more “family time” with his hard-working father.
William says: “It’s something I’m working more heavily on, put it that way. I think he does have time for it, but I would like him to have more time with the children.
“Now that he’s reached his 70th year it’s a perfect time to consolidate a little bit because, as most families would do, you are worried about having them around and making sure their health’s okay and he’s the fittest man I know, but I want him to be fit until he’s 95.
“So having more time with him at home would be lovely, and being able to play around with the grandchildren. Because when he’s there, he’s brilliant. But we need him there as much as possible.”
Camilla says: “He will get down on his knees and crawl about with them for hours, you know, making funny noises and laughing and my grandchildren adore him, absolutely adore him.
“He reads Harry Potter and he can do all the different voices and I think children really appreciate that.”
Aides say Charles could not be prouder to be a grandfather. The prince shows the documentary crew an arboretum he planted for his eldest grandchild at Birkhall, his Scottish home, he calls “George’s wood”.
ENVIRONMENT
Referring to his passion for the environment and life-long campaign to highlight the perils of climate change, Harry says his father can’t help “banging the drum”, even when he sits down with his sons to dinner.
He tells his brother: “You know how frustrated he gets. But he’s done an amazing job and without telling us the direction that we should go in, he’s just let us learn from the nature of the job, learning from him and learning from mummy.”
The programme reveals how Charles would take his sons litter picking when they were on holiday with him. He has also passed down some of his other quirkier traits.
Harry reveals: “He’s a stickler for turning lights off. And that’s now something I’m obsessed with, because my wife goes: “Well, why turn the lights off? You know, it’s dark.”
“I go ‘we only need one light, we don’t need like six’.”