King Charles is spending more time at Windsor in order to be closer with his grandchildren after the Prince and Princess of Wales moved their family to the Windsor estate last year.
Editor at Large for the Mail on Sunday Charlotte Griffiths joined Patrick Christys on his GB News show to discuss these new reports.
Patrick opened the conversation: “The royal family has at times copped a fair bit of criticism for being part of, as I think by the way is not uncommon in aristocratic circles, where the family is not necessarily always as close as it is round at Doreen and Dave's at #42. But is this a sign of how much the king is is relishing his duties as grandfather?”
Griffiths replied: “William has spoken before about how it was quite difficult to get access to Charles. So when Charles was about 70, William said they’d like him to see more of the grandchildren, but it's quite hard to get hold of him because he's such a workaholic.
King Charles (left) and Prince William and Prince George (right)
PA
“And I think actually ironically, even though he's king and his workload has never been higher, he's getting to see a little bit more of them and he really wants to nurture George as the future king.
“And also they're now all sort of gravitating around Windsor so that the the Cambridges, as they were known then, used to always be at Anmer and Charles was always at Highgrove. But now they're all gravitating around Windsor where the kids are at school. So there's actually more opportunity for him to see them.
“It's clear, and always has been clear that Charles actually really does want to see his grandchildren. And I think he even built a playground for George when he was born at Highgrove, which is really sweet. He’s a softy at heart.”
Patrick agreed, “It was actually really sweet. And so you think that there might be a bit of tutoring going on from Charles via William down to George? It would be a very nice thing to do to kind of show him the royal ropes and to have that influence in his life.”
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Mail on Sunday's Charlotte Griffiths discusses King Charles relationship with his grandchildren.
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“Definitely.” Replied Griffiths. “It would have been bred into Charles by the Queen that, absolutely, take a very strong interest in George's life, just as the Queen took a real interest in William's life.”
On the King’s new priorities, a source told The Mail: "His habits are that he heads to Highgrove [in Gloucestershire] for the weekend and will stop at Windsor on Fridays.”
Patrick questioned whether the King could be doing a ‘disservice’ to Prince Harry, whose children Archie and Lilibet have only met the royal family on a few occasions.
Indeed, while these reports have warmed many hearts, they come as questions are raised about where Harry and Meghan will spend Christmas this year, with the couple claiming they want a traditional British Christmas but have not been invited to join the royal festivities.
King Charles spending 'much more time' with George, Charlotte and LouisGETTY“I think so, because I think it's quite obvious from pictures that we've seen of Charles with his grandchildren over the years. He's incredibly fond of them. And he's actually a real softy and a proper soft grandpa at heart.
“So I think if only he could get more access to those grandchildren of his on the other side of the Atlantic, it would be a lovely thing to see. And I did feel for them when they recorded that video for his 75th birthday. And I thought, God, you know, they hardly know him. They've recorded a video to say 'happy birthday grandpa', but they can't actually see him.”
“Therein lies the problem with William and Harry is that the heir is always going to get a lot of focus and a lot of nurturing. I hope that Louis never has this problem with his brother.
“But he's going to get undoubtedly more attention from Charles than anything because Charles has to make sure he is the future of the monarchy one day in many, many decades time.”