Prince William has opened up about his father’s coronavirus diagnosis and how he does fear for his family’s health amid the Covid-19 outbreak, particularly his grandparents the Queen and Prince Philip, due to their age.
The 37-year-old joined his wife Catherine for a video chat with the BBC this week, discussing their life in lockdown, home schooling the kids, the importance of mental health and their fears for the elderly members of the family who are most at risk of contracting coronavirus.
Just weeks ago Prince Charles was forced into quarantine after testing positive for the virus, along with his wife Camilla, who received a negative result. While the Queen’s son is back to good health now and is free of Covid-19, William said he was “quite concerned” for his father at the time.
“He fits the profile of somebody at the age he’s at which is fairly risky,” he said on the video chat with BBC reporter Tina Daheley. “So I was a little bit worried, but my father has had many chest infections, colds and things and so I thought to myself ‘if anybody is going to beat this it’s going to be him’ and actually he was very lucky, he had mild symptoms.”
William said it wasn’t actually the physical symptoms of the virus that his father found the most difficult to deal with during his quarantine period, but being confined to the home and being unable to get in his regular exercise. The prince said for his father, getting in his walks is important for his mental health, and so that’s probably what he struggled with the most.
“I think that was the biggest thing that impacted him,” William explained. “[It’s] what he needs to keep functioning and be happy and healthy and suddenly you can take that away and you start noticing it. I think that was quite challenging for him.”
But it’s not just his father that William and his wife are concerned for amid the Covid-19 outbreak, with his grandmother the Queen and grandfather Prince Philip obviously in the high risk category for contracting the virus.
“I think very carefully about my grandparents who are, you know, at the age they’re at, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that they’re, you know, isolated and away and protected from this,” he said.
“But it does worry me, you know, what’s going to happen to a lot of the vulnerable people and the high-risk people who are going to potentially have to isolate away for quite some time, and the impact that’s going to have on them and on families up and down the country having to do that.”
Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also shed light on their life in lockdown and how they are managing at home with three young kids. Catherine explained that just like other families, there have been ups and downs, but they’ve decided to be open with their children about the pandemic and what’s going on.
“George is much older than Lois is, but they are aware,” she said “Although you don’t want to scare them and make it too overwhelming, I think it is appropriate to acknowledge it, in the simple ways, in an age appropriate way.”
And while William said home schooling has been fun, Catherine admitted it has been challenging. The mother-of-three said they’re keeping a “pretty strict routine” which has helped them massively, and even decided to keep teaching going over the holidays, with the duchess admitting “I feel very mean”.
“It’s just having that bit of structure actually and it’s great, there’s so many great tips online and fun activities that you can do with the children, so it hasn’t been all hardcore,” Catherine said during the interview with the BBC.
“But the children have got such stamina, I don’t know how honestly. You get to the end of the day, you write down all the list of the things done in that day. You sort of pitch a tent, take the tent down again, cook, bake, you get to the end of the day, [and] you have a lovely day. But it is amazing how much you can cram into one day, that’s for sure.”