Prince William and Duchess Kate are worried about their older family members — such as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Charles — amid the coronavirus pandemic.
William, 37, and Kate, 38, appeared on the BBC Breakfast morning show on Friday, April 17, where the Duke of Cambridge admitted he feared for the safety of his family.
“Obviously I think very carefully about my grandparents, who are at the age they’re at, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that they’re isolated away and protecting them. But it does worry me,” William said. “What’s going to happen to the lost and the vulnerable people and the high-risk people who are going to have to potentially isolate away for quite some time and the impact that’s going to have on them and on families up and down the country?”
The prince added that he was worried when Charles, 71, was diagnosed with coronavirus in March but noted that his father displayed “very mild symptoms.” At the time, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the queen, 93, was in “good health.” William revealed that he was worried about his father’s recovery because of his age.
“I have to admit, at first I was quite concerned, he fits the profile of somebody, at the age he is at, which is fairly risky,” William said. “My father has had many chest infections, colds, and things like that over the years. And so, I thought to myself, if anybody is going to be able to beat this, it’s going to be him.”
William explained that the “hardest thing” for Charles was not being able to step outside for fresh air. “He’s a mad walker and just loves walking so I think he found it quite difficult. Especially, also I think with his mental health, being stuck inside and not being able to go for walks,” he said.
Us Weekly confirmed in March that William and Prince Harry called their father after hearing about his positive test results. Harry, 35, and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been self-isolating in Los Angeles with their 11-month-old son Archie.
William and Kate, meanwhile, have been advocating for the fight against coronavirus in the U.K., which has more than 104,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The royal couple — who are the parents of Prince George, 6, Princess Charlotte, 4, and Prince Louis, 23 months — visited an emergency call center in London to meet staff taking emergency calls from the public in March. Days later, the pair spotlighted the challenges social distancing can have on mental health.
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