Prince Charles news: Queen’s key to success is ‘sustaining mystery’ – vivid difference | Royal | News (Reports)

The Queen’s reign has been successful because she has been able to “sustain the mystery” and conceal her personality and thoughts behind the Crown, according to royal author Clive Irving. The expert said: “She understood from the word go, when she became queen in 1952, that you have to sustain the mystery.”

Speaking to Australia’s Today Extra, the author of The Last Queen added: “The person is not the point, the Crown is the point, the institution is the point.”

Mr Irving had previously noted Prince Charles has so far chosen a different path than his mother when it comes to showing his personality, views or feelings.

The author told Express.co.uk in December there is a “very vivid difference” between the Queen and her heir apparent.

While we know nothing about the Queen’s political stance and feelings, Mr Irving claimed we “know almost too much” about the Prince of Wales.  

The author told Express.co.uk in December: “You’ve got the Queen, who has always succeeded in concealing what she really thinks about anything.

“And Charles, whom we know almost too much, I feel we know more than we need to know about Charles.

“He is completely different in nature and manner to his mother.”  

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Prince Charles, whose coronation as Prince of Wales took place more than 50 years ago, has been vocal about his interests and battles.

In 1970, he delivered his first speech to the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales focused on the environment and the dangers of plastic pollution.

His decision to spearhead the battle against climate change and pollution at a time they were problems only a few were speaking about, Prince Charles recalled last year, brought many to think he was “completely mad”. 

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Prince Charles has also been perceived as less politically neutral than his mother.

Between 2004 and 2005, he sent in his private capacity letters to ministers in seven Government departments to discuss topics close to his heart such as culture, agricultural issues and illegal fishing.

These notes, released in 2015, were described as “harmless” and “underwhelming”.

However, critics of the Prince of Wales have seen these memos as worrying political meddling on behalf of the future head of state of 16 countries. 

Another stark difference between the current monarch and her son is how much of their private lives have become public knowledge.

Unlike the Queen’s, Prince Charles’s romantic life has been the focus of the attention of the public for years.

His fairytale wedding with Princess Diana, their very public separation and divorce hit the front pages of newspapers around the world as well as the prince’s relationship with Camilla.

Unlike the Queen, Prince Charles has had years as the Prince of Wales without the constraints that come with ruling. 

However, the heir to the throne has already signalled he won’t carry on fighting his battles as he has done as Prince of Wales once he ascends to the throne.

In a BBC documentary celebrating his 70th birthday, Prince Charles said: “You know, I’ve tried to make sure whatever I’ve done has been non-party political, and I think it’s vital to remember there’s only room for one sovereign at a time, not two.

“So, 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.”