Charles: 'I am being tortured by public over Camilla'

The Prince of Wales has lashed out at public mockery of his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles claiming he is being "tortured" in a hitherto unreported interview.

The Prince of Wales has lashed out at public mockery of his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles claiming he is being "tortured" in a hitherto unreported interview.

Gavin Hewitt, a BBC journalist, revealed details last night of an off-the-record interview in which the Prince says he is tired of being told what to do. According to Hewitt, the Prince bridled at suggestions that his relationship with Mrs Parker Bowles was a matter of public interest.

"All my life people have been telling me what to do. I'm tired of it. My private life has become an industry. People are making money out it," Mr Hewitt says he was told in today's Mail on Sunday.

Although conducted some time ago, the details of the officially sanctioned conversation reveal the depth of Prince Charles' bitterness at public opinion about his private life. "I thought the British people were supposed to be compassionate. I don't see much of it," he said.

The same remarks might apply to his mother, if her views on the marriage, as vouchsafed by "courtiers" to The Sunday Telegraph, are to be believed. She is reported to have "distanced" herself from the wedding and thinks that her son is putting "gratification before duty".

Meanwhile it also emerged that the royal wedding may not be televised after objections by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Courtiers are reported as saying that Dr Williams is anxious to avoid inflaming tensions by releasing clips of the church blessing that is to follow the civil registration in Windsor's Guildhall.