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There's been a lot of talk about Prince Charles' future reign lately. The heir apparent turned 70 this month and, in April, Queen Elizabeth took steps to officially confirm Charles as her successor.
Don't expect the reign of King Charles any time too soon though. According to royal expert Nick Bullen, who is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of True Royalty TV and an award-winning documentary filmmaker, 92-year-old Elizabeth has exactly zero plans to abdicate and pass the crown down to Charles before she has to.
In an interview with Yahoo News' series The Royal Box, Bullen, who has produced "countless" programs and documentaries about the royals, according to the Daily Mail, said that his experience working around the monarch has made him confident that "abdication will never happen."
According to Bullen, any inclination Elizabeth might have had to abdicate was squashed by the popularity of the younger generation of royals—not just Prince William, Prince Harry, and their wives, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, but the great-grandkids too.
"I think the Queen sees what those boys and their wives bring, I also wonder whether she even throws forward to the great grandchildren," Bullen explained. "Princess Charlotte, already at the age of three, knows how to work a crowd. Maybe now through her grandchildren she can see a way of just staying on the crest of that wave."
Of course, if Elizabeth truly never abdicates, then she'll be the Queen of England until the day she dies, which could still be a while away, based on her family history and overall health.
"Her mother lived to 101. The Queen is there for the long run…she could live for at least another 10 years," Bullen said. "She’s seen it all, she’s done it all, she is the ultimate working mother and working woman, and I don’t think she’s going anywhere, anytime soon."
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Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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