Prince Charles on His Role Versus His Mother the Queen's: 'There's Only Room for One Sovereign'

Prince Charles has firm views on various issues — and over the years, he has invited criticism for expressing them.

But in a new documentary, the future king say he is not apologizing for what has been called “meddling.” “I always wonder what ‘meddling’ is … I always thought it was motivating,” he says.

“But I’ve always been intrigued, if it’s meddling to worry about the inner cities as I did 40 years ago and what was happening or not happening there; the conditions in which people were living. If that’s meddling, I’m very proud of it.”

He views his role as Prince of Wales, and heir to the throne, as very different from the role of monarch. He tells Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70, which aired on BBC One on Thursday evening, “You can’t be the same as the sovereign if you’re the Prince of Wales or the heir. But the idea somehow that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense because the two … the two situations are completely different.”

Charles is the oldest and longest-serving heir in history and has carved out his own unique role — including highlighting the plight of youth and climate change and speaking out on plastics as early as 1970. “I’ve tried to make sure whatever I’ve done has been non-party political, and I think its vital to remember,” he says. “There’s only room for one sovereign at a time, not two.”