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London - Prince William feels there is no question of him becoming king ahead of his father Prince Charles, a report said on Sunday, following a rash of polls in Britain showing subjects favouring such a move.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper quoted a senior royal aide as saying 28-year-old William, second-in-line to the throne, had no desire to leapfrog the Prince of Wales to become king after Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
"There is no question in Prince William's mind that the Prince of Wales will be the next monarch," the aide was quoted as saying.
"Prince William is aware of the speculation, but he is very thick-skinned. He knows his place in the royal family and he considers himself to be very low down the food chain. He has no desire to climb the ladder of kingship before his time.
"He is very close to his father and incredibly supportive of him and his work as the Prince of Wales.
No suggestion of skipping
"Both of them will let nature take its course. There is no suggestion from anywhere within the institution that a generation will be skipped."
Last Sunday, three polls suggested that most Britons wanted William and his new fiancee Kate Middleton to be their next king and queen, leapfrogging Charles and his wife Camilla to the throne.
The surveys were conducted amid a wave of public support for the eldest son of Charles and the late Diana, princess of Wales, after William announced that he and Middleton would marry next year.
William is a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot, based at RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey, northwest Wales. He conducts occasional royal duties but is largely focused on his military career.
William "is not yet a full-time member of the royal family - first and foremost he is an RAF officer - and he will continue in his role at RAF Valley until at least 2013," the royal aide told The Sunday Telegraph.
Last weekend's polls also came after Charles suggested in an interview that Camilla might become queen when he accedes to the throne.
It was announced when they married in 2005 that rather than queen Camilla, it was intended that she would use the title Princess Consort when Charles becomes king.
Despite the popular sentiment in the polls, it is difficult to see how Charles would not accede to the throne first when Queen Elizabeth dies.
Lord Anthony Lester, a constitutional expert, said: "The mechanism of succession is not based on a popularity contest, so all the polls in the world about who should be the next monarch are irrelevant.
"I would certainly not expect the Prince of Wales to ever relinquish that right to the throne in his lifetime, nor would I imagine that Prince William would ever consider challenging it."
