Prince Charles On Being Relevant

When Prince Charles arrives in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 1, to begin an eight-day visit, it will be his first official American tour in more than a decade.

Everyone knows what has happened in the interim. His troubled marriage to the late Princess Diana, his remarriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, and the youthful indiscretions of his two sons have been turned to a reality-based soap opera by the tabloid media. But most Americans know very little about who the Prince of Wales is and what he does as heir to the British throne.

Members of the royal family hardly ever grant interviews, the Queen has never given one, and you rarely see them talk. But last month, as his trip to the United States was being planned, Prince Charles granted 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft an audience, allowing us to follow him around and chat, not about his family, but about being Prince of Wales, a job and a life like no other.

"No. Not always, but sometimes," Prince Charles replied.

"If you did, what would you put down?" Kroft asked.

"I would list it as worrying about this country and its inhabitants. That's my particular duty. And I find myself born into this particular position. I'm determined to make the most of it. And to do whatever I can to help. And I hope I leave things behind a little bit better than I found them," the prince said. "It's hard to say, but I think it is a profession, actually; doing what I'm doing. Because if you tried it for a bit, you might find out how difficult it is," he added, laughing.

He is somewhere between a brand and a public institution, a future head of state in waiting — and waiting. He is a symbol of continuity with no real power but tremendous influence that is tied to his position and wealth.

The money comes from a 14th century real estate empire called the Duchy of Cornwall, which was established to provide an income for the heir to the British throne.

Today it includes 135,000 acres of farmland, forests, waterfront property, London real estate, and even a cricket stadium. It produces $25 million a year in rents and other income that supports the prince, his wife and children and a staff of 130. There are perks such as travel on the royal train. And $7 million from the government to help with official expenses.

On a recent trip to the Yorkshire Countryside to mark the 850th anniversary of the village of Richmond, the whole town turned out to greet Charles and Camilla, his new wife, longtime friend and former mistress, now the Duchess of Cornwall. They were recently voted the most popular couple in Britain, nosing out the Queen and Prince Philip and they seemed comfortable with each other and the crowds.

"There was clearly a bond between you and the people there. Explain that to me," asked Kroft.

"No idea," the prince replied with laugh.

"You have no idea?" Kroft asked.

"No, but I always enjoyed seeing all sorts of people all around the country. I do this over and over again, have done for 30-something years," the prince said.

He could pass the time playing polo or do nothing at all if he wanted, a path chosen by most of his predecessors, many of whom were lay-abouts and playboys. But Charles chose to invent a job where none existed. He made 29 major speeches last year, visited 14 countries, and runs the largest group of non-profit organizations in the country called "Prince's Charities." He raises more than $200 million a year for those 16 organizations, 14 of which he founded.

The largest charity is The Prince's Trust which, over 29 years, has helped to provide job training for more than a half a million young people.

"Do you think if you weren't doing this stuff, that it would get done?" Kroft asked.

"If I wasn't doing it? No," the prince replied.

Asked if he felt as if he was making a difference, Prince Charles said, "I don't know. I try. I only hope that when I'm dead and gone, they might appreciate it a little bit more. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes that happens."

As he approaches his 57th birthday, he sometimes feels misunderstood and undervalued. He was educated at Cambridge, can fly jet planes and helicopters, is extremely knowledgeable about the arts, and has tried to carve out for himself a number of different careers — environmentalist, urban planner, real estate developer, and social critic — deeply committed to a vision of what Great Britain was and should be.

His vision is laid out in bricks and mortar in Poundbury, a village of 2,500 people, which he created on his land near Dorchester in the south of England. All his ideas on architectural design, class structure, aesthetics and ecology are here. And what he sees as the future looks very much like the past: an 18th century village adapted for the 21st.

Prince Charles gave Kroft a tour of the village. "And that's a convenience store, which I'm very proud of, which everybody said wouldn't work. That's the pub, which again nobody wanted to touch. But now of course, the values are going up, and up and up."

Kroft remarked that the buildings looked as if they were built to last, lacking flimsy materials.

"Well, that's what I've been trying to encourage people to think about. … To break the conventional mold in the way we've been building and designing for the last, well, during the last century really, has all been part of a throw-away society," Prince Charles said.

Everything in the village is constructed of native or recycled materials, "sustainable development," he calls it, that conserves the Earth's resources.

Single-family homes are mixed with small apartments so there are people of all income levels here living side by side in a community with shops and light industry. The narrow twisty roads discourage automobile traffic, and cars are parked out of sight in landscaped lots.

"The whole of the 20th century has always put the car at the center," the prince explained. "So by putting the pedestrian first, you create these livable places, I think, with more attraction, and interest and character. Livability."

He believes that the modern world with its cars and computers is slowly eroding our humanity, that we are losing touch with the world around us.

The British tabloids have made an industry out of his travails and love to portray him as an out-of-touch eccentric trying to stop progress, an Edwardian hippie with no real-life experience, who's never had to draw his own bath or take out the garbage. He's been constantly ridiculed for what have been called his "undergraduate ramblings," including his innocent admission that he talks to his plants.

"Are you familiar with any of the plants here? Talking to any of them?" Kroft asked.

"Yeah, I know some of them. No, no, no," the prince said, laughing. "No, I do all the time. Not here."

"You've gotten more mileage out of that, I think, than almost anything that's …" Kroft said.

"Just shows you can't make a joke. … Without them taking it seriously. So, it's the same old story," the prince replied.

His image is carefully managed by a communications staff of nine that also handles his umbrella. They made it clear the Prince would not answer questions about his wives, past and present, his sons or the Queen. He mistrusts the media for past abuses, and worries that no one takes him seriously.

"What is the most difficult part of your job? I mean except for talking with people like me?" Kroft asked.

"Yes, exactly," the prince said, laughing. "Oh, dear. I think, that the most important thing is to be relevant. I mean, it isn't easy, as you can imagine. Because if you say anything, people will say, 'It's all right for you to say that.' It's very easy to just dismiss anything I say. I mean, it's difficult. But what I've tried to do is to put my money where my mouth is as much as I can, by actually creating like here, models on the ground. I mean, if people don't like it, I'll go away and do it."

"You are in many ways a public advocate for the traditional. What are the great parts of Great Britain that are worth preserving, besides the monarchy?" Kroft asked.

"Well, there's an awful lot of things that are worth preserving," the prince said with a laugh. "The trouble, I think, in today's world is we abandon so many things unnecessarily, so often in the name of efficiency. If you make everything over-efficient, you suck out, it seems to me, every last drop of what, up to now, has been known as culture. We are not the technology. It should be our — you know, our slave, the technology. But it's rapidly becoming our master in many areas, I think."

Prince Charles says he is not trying to stop progress. "I'm just trying to say that we ought to redefine the way in which progress is seen. Is it progress to rush headlong into upsetting the whole balance of nature, which is what, I think, we're beginning to do?

"You know, if you look at the latest figures on climate change and global warming, they're terrifying, terrifying."

As a member of the royal family, he is expected to avoid politically contentious issues. Yet he has openly opposed a number of government policies, including the development of genetically-modified crops. He's raised questions about stem cell research and is a strong advocate of alternative medicine. He has expressed those views in speeches, letters and meetings with government officials, some of whom consider him to be a royal nuisance.

"How do you deal with that? How do you walk that line?" Kroft asked.

"Well, years of practice, perhaps," the prince said.

"Does it get you in a spot of trouble from time to time from certain people?" Kroft asked.

"Oh, inevitably. But it seems to be part and parcel of the thing. I mean, if I wasn't, I think, doing these things, I'd be accused by people like you, doing nothing with my life," the prince replied, laughing.

Asked if anybody ever asks him to tone it down a bit, the prince said, "Oh yes, of course. But I think the proof is in the pudding. And I think, you know, all the things they try to tell me to tone down over the years, if you look now, though, you'll find they're fairly mainstream."

Twenty years ago when he announced that he was going to begin farming organically on his estate at Highgrove, no one knew what he was talking about and assumed it was another crackpot idea.

Today it's big business in Great Britain, and Prince Charles has a line of high-end organic products produced on his estate called Duchy Originals that includes everything from biscuits and jams to mineral water, sausage and turkeys.

Prince Charles says the business has been quite successful. "And that has grown and now turns over £40 million ($71 million) a year. And I'm able to give away over a million pounds each year to my charitable ventures."

When he arrives in New York on Nov. 1 as Great Britain's most popular ambassador, he will be selling a political, commercial and diplomatic agenda prepared by the Foreign Office.

He will also be introducing the American public to his new wife, who will be making her first official overseas trip and donned a diamond tiara for the first time last week. She is not giving interviews right now, and may never.

She is said to be interested in supporting, not overshadowing, her husband, and has no interest in establishing her own public identity.

Why has it been 20 years since his last official visit to the United States?

"You don't want to see me all the time. You get bored," the prince said, laughing.

"Is there anything you're looking forward to doing there, anything you're looking forward to taking the Duchess and showing, anything that you remember from your last visit? Are you going to get a favorite coffee or a meal?" Kroft asked.

"I shouldn't think so, no," the prince said, laughing. "I mean, the problem is that it's quite a long time. … These official visits are quite difficult to escape, you know, to go to places. Be nice to do it privately. But I have to wait for other occasions."

Kroft asked Prince Charles if he ever gets to do anything privately.

"Yes. But it's not so easy nowadays. I can't. I'd love to. But I'm, unfortunately, I seem to be, you know, people seem to know about it or invent it," the prince said.

Some viewers may be wondering if Prince Charles is happy. We were specifically discouraged from asking that simple question with the admonition that there is nothing well-mannered English men and women loathe more than discussing their feelings. But Kroft saved his last question to politely pursue the personal and was deftly deflected with the royal chill.

"It seems like you have reached a certain point in your life where your children are grown, you've remarried. Your mother is approaching a significant birthday. It seems like your life is very stable and you seem very content in your job and your work," Kroft said.

"Well, if you think that that's what it all appears, I am thrilled and delighted," Prince Charles said with a laugh. "And we'll see what, you know, the American people make of it when we come."