Prince Harry has told a US magazine that no one in the Royal Family has any desire to become king or queen, explaining: "We will carry out our duties at the right time."
The surprising announcement was made during an interview about his life and the future of the monarchy with Newsweek.
"Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so," he said to the magazine.
The prince, who is currently fifth in line to the throne, continued: "The monarchy is a force for good and we want to carry on the positive atmosphere that the Queen has achieved for over 60 years, but we won't be trying to fill her boots."
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Harry also spoke of his mission to live a normal life, saying that he thought people would be surprised at how ordinarily he lives.
"My mother took a huge part in showing me an ordinary life, including taking me and my brother to see homeless people.
"Thank goodness I'm not completely cut off from reality. People would be amazed by the ordinary life William and I live. I do my own shopping.
He continued: "Sometimes, when I come away from the meat counter in my local supermarket, I worry someone will snap me with their phone. But I am determined to have a relatively normal life, and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too."
Adding, "Even if I was king, I would do my own shopping."
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Harry also spoke on the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris 20 years ago.
"My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television.
"I don't think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don't think it would happen today."
The 32-year old was in the papers recently when he revealed that he had sought counselling to help him work through issues stemming from the death of his mother.
He told the Telegraph: "My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum, because why would that help?
"[I thought] it's only going to make you sad, it's not going to bring her back. So from an emotional side, I was like, 'Right, don't ever let your emotions be part of anything.' So I was a typical 20, 25, 28-year-old running around going 'life is great', or 'life is fine' and that was exactly it.
"And then [I] started to have a few conversations and actually all of a sudden, all of this grief that I have never processed started to come to the forefront and I was like, 'There is actually a lot of stuff here that I need to deal with.'"
Asked whether he had ever been to see a 'shrink', he said: "I've done that a couple of times, more than a couple of times, but it's great.
"Because of the process I have been through over the past two-and-a-half years, I've now been able to take my work seriously, been able to take my private life seriously as well, and been able to put blood, sweat and tears into the things that really make a difference and things that I think will make a difference to everybody else."
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Sources: the Mirror, the Telegraph, Newsweek
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