Prince Charles feels lack of hugs
The Prince of Wales has spoken of missing his family “terribly” during lockdown, and that he wanted to give people a hug.
The Prince, who is at Birkhall in Scotland, lamented that his father would celebrate his 99th birthday without him next week, saying how “terribly sad” it is to be away from family and friends. Saying he has been “doing the Facetime,” the Prince told he has been missing his grandchildren — Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Archie Mountbatten-windsor, who is now living in Los Angeles.
The Prince has been staying at Birkhall since contracting a mild version of Covid-19 in March. He spent two weeks in isolation, separate from the Duchess of Cornwall, and has since been working from home.
He was grateful to have the technology available to stay in touch.
“But it isn’t the same, is it. You really want to give people a hug.”
Of the Duke of Edinburgh, who celebrates his 99th birthday on June 10 and is at Windsor Castle, he added: “Well, I haven’t seen my father for a long time.
“He’s going to be 99 next week, so yes, or my grandchildren or anything.
“I’ve been doing the FaceTime, is all very well, but….”
The Duke has been with the Queen in Windsor since March, in isolation along with a small number of household staff who work in three- week shifts to protect them from coronavirus.
Of the time when he’ll be able to embrace loved ones again, the Prince said: “Well, I do hope so because, don’t worry, I do totally understand so many people’s frustrations, difficulties, grief and anguish.
“And I mean 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 around us.”
The Prince said contracting coronavirus had made him more determined to “push and shout and prod” for nature to return to the “centre of everything we do.”
He launched the Great Reset project, his proposals for rebuilding a more environmentally-friendly economy as the world recovers from COVID-19.
“I was lucky in my case and got away with it quite lightly,” he said. “But I’ve had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through.”
Urging the private sector to put the planet first, he added: “We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis.”