Prince Charles has given a rare insight into his lockdown life, revealing in a Sky News interview that he is desperately missing family – especially his nearly 99-year-old father, Prince Philip.
WATCH: Prince Charles’ emotional confession
In the special UK broadcast, named, After the Pandemic: Our New World, the 71-year-old spoke openly of his experience during British lockdown, which has spanned more than two months.
Charles himself contracted COVID-19 back in March, an experience he has been very willing to discuss, as his country navigates one of its most difficult times.
In the program, the Prince was interviewed via video link from his own home where he has remained in lockdown.
Speaking to journalist Rhiannon Mills, the prince opened up about one of the emotional realities of being away from his wider family.
Explaining that he had simply been keeping in touch with his family via video calls, the prince explained: “I haven’t seen my father for a long time, he’s going to be 99 next week… or my grandchildren or anything.
“I’ve been doing the FaceTime, is all very well but….”
He continued: “Fortunately at least you can speak to [family and friends] on telephones and occasionally do this sort of thing. But it isn’t the same is it. You really want to give people a hug.”
While things are undoubtedly a little difficult now, the prince remains optimistic.
He added: “I do totally understand so many people’s frustrations, difficulties, grief and anguish and I’m just trying to do my best to find and help and encourage ways to enable people to go on doing that, but in a way that doesn’t wreck everything at the same time around us.”
The prince then went on to describe his own experience with the virus, before acknowledging how “quite lucky” he was to recover.
“[I] got away with it quite lightly. But I’ve had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through,” he said.
“I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That to me is the most ghastly thing.”
The prince reiterated his desire to never repeat a pandemic again and hoped that people would continue putting nature at the centre of everything we do.
“The more we erode the natural world, the more we destroy biodiversity, the more we expose ourselves to this kind of danger,” he said.
The Prince is indeed a big fan of the outdoors and the natural world. This week, he shared a virtual statement from his own garden in support of the National Garden Scheme.
“The reassuring solace, peace and inspiration of a garden, whether it is your own or someone else’s, can now be found to a certain extent through digital means, thanks to this terrific scheme,” he said.
This article first appeared on Now To Love.
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