London: Prince Charles taught his children the importance of the environment by taking his teenage sons out to pick up rubbish, Prince Harry has revealed.
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| Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrive at the Commonwealth War Grave Yard in Accra, Ghana, on Friday.
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"We were in Norfolk on school holidays, and went out litter-picking with him ... Both of us thought, 'This is perfectly normal, everyone must do it.' We're there with our, basically, spikes, stabbing the rubbish into black plastic bags," recalls Harry in a BBC film made to commemorate Charles' 70th birthday on November 14.
Harry added that he was "programmed" to pick up rubbish by his father, who in the past was criticised for his environmentalism.
Charles is an organic farmer and an advocate for climate protection and threatened species.
Harry made the comments as he and Prince William watched a recording of their father giving a speech in 1970 in which he mentioned the growing throwaway plastic society.
William said his father was affected by the backlash he received for his environmental views, which saw him ridiculed for supposedly talking to plants.
"He does live the way he advocates so, until someone comes up with an electric plane - it's impossible to get round the world, for instance, without using a plane that's there," he said.
"He did take to heart the criticism quite a lot when he was younger."
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| Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on their recent trip to Australia |
Harry said Charles had "done an amazing job" as a father "without telling us what we should be doing or what direction we should be going".
"He's just let us learn from the nature of the job, learn from him, learn from Mummy, to the point where I used to get the ... mickey (taken) out of me at school for just picking up rubbish."