In interviews marking Queen’s 90th birthday, Duke of Cambridge says he is thinking of how to modernise royal family

Prince William has responded to allegations that he is “work-shy” by insisting he is developing into “a duty role”.

In television interviews to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday, William said he “didn’t lie awake waiting to be king” but that when the time was right he would be ready to shoulder more royal responsibilities.

He also acknowledged that the royal family needed to modernise and said he was already thinking about how to keep the monarchy “relevant in the next 20 years”.

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He told the BBC that for now he was focusing on being a father and an air ambulance pilot. “I take duty very seriously. I take my responsibilities very seriously. But it’s about finding your own way at the right time, and if you’re not careful duty can weigh you down at a very early age,” he said.

“I think you have got to develop into a duty role,” he added.

William said considering what kind of king he wanted to be “very much occupies my thinking space”, but that it would not be a priorityfor 20 years or more.

The Duke of Cambridge told the BBC’s royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell: “I have no idea when that’s going to be, and I certainly don’t lie awake waiting or hoping for it, because it sadly means that my family have moved on, and I don’t want that.”

He added: “The royal family has to modernise and develop as it goes along, and it has to stay relevant. And that is the challenge for me. How do I make the royal family relevant in the next 20 years?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prince George, on duty during a Royal Mail photoshoot for a stamp sheet to mark the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. Photograph: Ranald Mackechnie/Royal Mail/PA

In the meantime, with his grandmother and his father both very active and engaged, the duke said his family was extremely supportive of his current level of royal engagements, giving him the “time and space to explore another means of doing a worthwhile job”.













Addressing the recent “work-shy” jibes made by some newspapers, William said he was going to get plenty of criticism over his lifetime, and “it’s something that I don’t completely ignore, but it’s not something I take completely to heart”.

William said the Queen, who turns 90 tomorrow, had been a strong female influence in his life. In a separate interview for Sky News, he said: “Having lost my mother at a young age, it’s been particularly important to me that I’ve had somebody like the Queen to look up to and who’s been there and who has understood some of the more complex issues when you lose a loved one.”

His said his grandmother was not afraid to chide him, telling the story of a childhood incident when he and his cousins, Peter and Zara Phillips, got into trouble at Balmoral, the Queen’s Scottish estate.

“We were chasing Zara around, who was on a go-cart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost. And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt; [she] came charging over and gave us the most almighty bollocking, and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on.”



The Royal Mail is marking the monarch’s 90th birthday on Thursday with a set of commemorative stamps featuring the Queen and the three direct heirs to the throne – including Prince George, aged two.



For the toddler prince, who is third in line, it is the first of doubtless many stamp portraits. Photographer Ranald Mackechnie had to perch him on a pile of foam blocks, bound with duct tape, to get him level with his father, grandfather and great-grandmother. “He was on top form. He was quite fascinated by the lights. He took it all in his stride,” said Mackechnie.



The stamps were unveiled on Wednesday as the Queen marked the 500th anniversary of the postal service at a Royal Mail delivery office in Windsor where she was to be presented with a collection of stamps released during her reign.



Later, she will open a new bandstand in Alexandra Gardens, close to Windsor Castle.



The town, where the Queen will celebrate her 90th birthday on Thursday, is well prepared. The flags and bunting are already out and crowds are anticipated for a traditional birthday walkabout. Later in the day she will light the first of 1,000 beacons across the UK and abroad, and attend a private dinner hosted at Windsor Castle by Prince Charles.



Among birthday cards was one from three blind war veterans from the Brighton-based Blind Veterans UK training and rehabilitation centre. Joyce Paice, 95, and Marion Sharville, 94, served in the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF), while Elizabeth Sharpe-Nelson, 95, served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).



On Friday, the Queen will host a private lunch at Windsor Castle for the US president and first lady, Barack and Michelle Obama.