Queen Elizabeth II to step down in 2021, royal expert claims

Queen Elizabeth II will step down next year, according to a royal expert. Photo / Getty Images

The Queen will step down and pass the reins to Prince Charles when she reaches the age of 95, a royal expert has claimed.

Robert Jobson claimed on True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat that Her Majesty will retire from royal life in 2021.

"I still firmly believe when the Queen becomes 95, that she will step down," the royal biographer said on the show.

Queen Elizabeth II with young Prince Charles in 1960. Photo / Getty Images

Jobson also claimed in the interview that Diana, Princess of Wales, thought she was "more powerful than the Queen" before her primetime 1995 BBC Panorama interview.

He also described Prince Harry's recent comments about his subconscious racial bias as "bare-faced hypocrisy".

Another royal expert backed up the claim, saying the Queen will be obliged to hand over the monarchy to Charles.

"I think she won't want to," Newsweek Royal reporter Jack Royston said on the show. "But realistically she will get to a point where she has handed over everything to Charles and then how do you look your son in the eye and tell him he is not going to be King?"

Jobson previously told the Daily Mail: "I understand the Queen has given the matter considerable thought and believes that, if she is still alive at 95, she will seriously consider passing the reign to Charles.

"Her Majesty is mindful of her age and wants to make sure when the time comes, the transition of the crown is seamless."

Jobson's comments come just before the 25th anniversary of Diana's controversial BBC Panorama interview.

"That period between the separation announcement [of Charles and Diana], she [Diana] actually was on the ascendancy of getting everything she wanted," he said.

"But she did this [Panorama] and I think she thought she was more powerful than the Queen. The Queen thought enough was enough and the shutters came down."

Jobson also called out Prince Harry's "hypocrisy".

Prince of Wales is greeted at Waitangi by an enthusiastic crowd last year. Photo / John Stone

"I remember him making racial slurs about an Asian officer which was filmed by himself and distributed by his friends and he had to apologise for making racial comments," he said.

"I find Harry telling everyone else that they are structurally racist hypocritical."

Jobson also went on to discuss reports about Prince Andrew returning to royal duties.

Diana is interviewed by Martin Bashir for the BBC Panorama programme in 1995. Photo / File

"Can he come back from this? No. No way can he come back from this," he said. "He has to be cleared by the FBI. If he goes over there, he opens himself to a large can of worms. Whatever he was doing at the parties was unsavoury. Andrew's association with Epstein leaves him totally exposed."