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Actor Jackman (2016)
Photo: Richard Shotwell/ AP/dpa
Australian actor Hugh Jackman is convinced that Australia will one day be a republic of its own.
Breaking up with the royal family is "inevitable" and "a natural part of evolution," Jackman told the BBC.
At the same time he emphasized that he had no ill will towards King Charles III.
and to wish his family »only the best«.
Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a federation of sovereign states that were part of the former British Empire.
The British monarch, i.e. King Charles III, is the formal head of the Commonwealth states.
Australians' relationship with their royal head of state is divided: some value tradition, others want to break away from the British royal family.
In a referendum in 1999, around 55 percent of Australians voted in favor of maintaining the monarchy and thus against their country becoming a republic.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II then reignited the debate about the country's exit from the Commonwealth.
Other countries are also flirting with the exit
Hugh Jackman's parents are both from the UK and he remembers celebrating royal occasions as a child, he told the BBC interview.
"When Prince Charles and Lady Di got married in 1981, we had to stop everything and watch the wedding," Jackman said.
“There was champagne and if we had had flags my father would have asked us to wave them.”
The 54-year-old, best known for his role as Wolverine in the film X-Men, said he appreciates and admires the work of the royal family.
"I have met the Queen on several occasions, as well as the Queen Mother and Prince Charles," he said.
"And I see and feel a genuine, sincere desire to serve the public."
Australia isn't the only Commonwealth country flirting with changing its constitution.
On November 30, 2021, the island state of Barbados in the Caribbean became a republic, and criticism of the British royal family is also growing in other countries in the region.
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