King Charles is planning to "leave the show" to his eldest son Prince William once this "incredibly difficult transition phase" for the monarchy comes to an end, according to a royal author.
The expert's claims come as the monarch finds himself trying to find solutions to the repercussions of the Firm's ongoing feud with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle who made their dramatic exit from the Royal Family in 2020, the Express reports.
During his first few months as King, Charles was left to deal with his youngest son's angry outbursts as the duke took aim at his family during an explosive Netflix docuseries, followed by a series of shocking allegations he made during his tell-all memoir Spare.
Faced with these daunting challenges as the new monarch in his older age, Charles, who turned 75 last week and is the oldest monarch to have ever taken the throne, is likely to have already prepared the grounds for his retirement.
Clive Irving, author of The Last Queen and royal columnist at The Daily Beast, told the Express US: "It may have already been surreptitiously planned that the King will abdicate when he's 80."
He continued: "He [Charles] wants to just have his moment in the limelight for a few years, make sure that William and Harry are carried through what's going to be an incredibly difficult transitional phase for the monarchy.
"And then Camilla can retire to Balmoral and leave the show to William and Princess Kate. I suspect that's what's going to happen."
If Irving's predictions are correct, Charles will only sit on the throne for five years before stepping down to allow the Prince of Wales to take over.
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However, in his opinion, this is not fast enough as Irving explained: "I think it's not a quick enough changing of the guard, but it may be forced on them by circumstances, anyway, in the end."
The royal author has been critical of the King's reign since he ascended the throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth last September.
In a previous interview with Express US, he said: "I've been surprised by the lack of any sign that he's going to get to grips with the scale of the monarchy - the size of it - and that relates to the cost of it."
However, the expert admits that he appreciates that the reigning monarch is caught between a rock and a hard place.
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He said: "I think Charles feels that it's his duty to serve, having waited so long. But he also knows he's the oldest person ever to have been coronated."
Polling suggests the general public have mixed feelings on the King as an Ipsos study in August found that approximately 60 percent of people in Great Britain had a positive opinion of the monarch, compared with 32 percent who had a negative opinion.
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