The Gentlemen star says King Charles should have handed throne to William and Kate

Vinnie Jones has questioned King Charles’s accession to the throne, arguing that Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, should have taken over the monarchy following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The actor, who rose to fame as a professional footballer before starring in films and TV shows including Snatch (2000), describes himself as a staunch royalist but believes the royal family should have upheld its traditional rules on divorce rather than allowing Charles to marry Queen Camilla and become king.

Divorced people were historically barred from marrying into the royal family, although the rules were relaxed in 2002.

Asked whether he should have had a tattoo of Charles rather than Winston Churchill, Jones told The Louis Theroux Podcast: “I’m a massive royalist, you know. I support the royals massively.

“You see, I think [Charles] went against the grain. I think they moved the goalposts for him with Camilla, and I’m a William and Kate supporter now. I think they’ve done it right. It’s a tradition. I’m a right traditionalist. I love tradition.”

Jones, 61, lamented the rules being altered for Charles (who was married to Princess Diana from 1981 to 1996) and Camilla (who was married to Andrew Parker Bowles between 1973 and 1995).

The combative former Wimbledon midfielder said: “Well, they moved the goalpost, didn’t they? They moved the rules. They changed the rules.”

When Theroux argued that “times change, rules change”, Jones replied: “And I am a big example of that, Louis. I’m not going to knock these rules because I’ve knocked them all my life.

“But to be fair, I was hoping that he would have done the right thing and said, ‘Thank you very much. We’re going to step aside’, and William and Kate are going to be the king and queen. That, to me, was my Britain.”

Vinnie plays gamekeeper Geoff Seacombe in Guy Ritchie’s popular Netflix crime drama The Gentlemen and recalled being overcome with emotion on his first day of filming – after he and the director had drifted apart when he drunkenly rejected a role in the 2008 film RocknRolla.

The Mean Machine star said: “We were doing the first scene on The Gentlemen. I was a bit apprehensive, and I’d gone in the trailer, and I didn’t want to go over to his trailer and all the things.

“So I thought I’d be professional. I hadn’t seen him for a long time. But it was the funeral scene in The Gentlemen. And we film it as the opening scene, first day on set.

“Guy is coming on set. So, we’re all stood round, I had f***ing butterflies. I was like a teenager. I’m like, f***ing hell. But I’m trying to look cool, he comes walking towards us and he just walks straight at me. Walked straight up and just went bang.

“F***ing hell, both of us in tears. All the crew and everyone was like, f***ing hell, that was a moment. Never got mentioned.

“We got on with it, and away we went. I haven’t spoken to him about that, but I know him well enough.

“Some things don’t need f***ing talking about all the time. It’s hard telling you that.”