Prince Charles 'prison' claim denied by Clarence House
A profile of the Prince of Wales said he is already feeling the weight of the crown
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Your support makes all the difference.Clarence House has denied reports that Prince Charles fears assuming the throne to become King will be akin to "prison".
American weekly magazine Time printed a profile of the Prince of Wales after speaking to 50 of his closest friends and associates for their front page article, 'The Forgotten Prince'.
Journalist Catherine Mayer was granted "exclusive access" to the future King and travelled to his residences in England, Scotland and Wales.
In her piece, Mayer said Charles was "impatient to get as much done as possible", before he succeeds his mother as monarch, adding that: "Far from itching to assume the crown, he is already feeling its weight and worrying about the impact on the job he has been doing.
“The Queen, at 87, is scaling back her work, and the Prince is taking up the slack, to the potential detriment of his network of charities, initiatives and causes.”
She quoted an unnamed source who said Charles fears he will not achieve ambitions that relate to his interests before "the prison shades close". It is not known who made the comment.
A Clarence House spokesman said: "This is not the Prince of Wales's view and should not be attributed to him as he did not say these words.
"The prince has dutifully supported the Queen all his life and his official duties and charitable work have always run in parallel."
In the article, Charles is quoted as saying: “I've had this extraordinary feeling, for years and years, ever since I can remember, really, of wanting to heal and make things better.
“I feel more than anything else it's my duty to worry about everybody and their lives in this country, to try and find a way of improving things if I possibly can.”
Mayer spoke on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning to assert that the "prison shades" line was "part of a wider quote, taken out of context" by the media, and the term actually referred to Prince Charles' concerns that taking on more duties has a "big impact on what the Prince of Wales actually does already, in terms of time, so the reference was to his dwindling lack of time".
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