Royal SPENDER: Prince Charles blasted for MOST EXPENSIVE overseas tours
PRINCE Charles has been blasted as a great spender as official figures show his recent overseas tours were the most expensive taken by the royals.
Prince Charles and Camilla watch a traditional dance in Ghana
The Prince hits 70 next week and a top royal author has described the Prince’s lavish lifestyle when travelling.
Tom Bower, who says his book was based on interviews with 120 people, many of whom worked for the royals, said: “He's ... intent on a very, very hyper-luxurious way of life, flying by private jet, (using the) royal train.”
Charles rejects such claims.
He told an Australian radio station in April when asked if it was true he travelled with his own toilet seat as Bower described: "Oh, don't believe all that crap.”
But he can still put on a regal show. An ex-aide said: “If he entertains, there is beautiful food, wine and service.
"He thinks that's right for the Prince of Wales and I think people would be disappointed if it wasn’t.”
Charles' supporters say he is easy quarry, with every action and utterance scrutinised by an often unsympathetic media.
A former senior aide who worked with the prince for many years, added: “When you're in his very exposed public position, loyalty and disloyalty is a quite complex situation.”
Bower's only spoken to people with a grievance
He said detractors simply chose to view Charles's characteristics in a bad light.
The former aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: ”There's a whole load of stuff that is just not true.
"Bower's only spoken to people with a grievance."
So what is he really like?
The ex-aide said: ”He's complicated.
“I’ve rarely met anyone so curious about the world as him and eager to know what's going on and why.
“More than anything, he's got this drive, he's phenomenally hard-working," the ex-aide said.
Simon Lewis, the queen's communications secretary from 1998 to 2001, described Charles as full of enthusiasm, committed, with a "wicked sense of humour".
"If you are a public figure ... if you put your head above the parapet then you get criticism," Lewis told Reuters.
Friends and foes speak of his devotion to duty.
The prince's working day starts at breakfast - he doesn't have lunch - and finishes near midnight, every day.
The ex-aide said he got a work-related call from Charles on Christmas Day.
READ MORE: How Charles has waited longer than any other royal to be monarch
Camilla Duchess of Cornwall marries Prince Charles in 2005
In private, Charles is passionate about arts, culture, theatre, literature, opera and pop - he's also a big fan of Leonard Cohen.
Happiest in his garden, he's loves Shakespeare, paints watercolours and has written children's books. He can be fun but also short-tempered and demanding, the former aide said.