Prince answers veterans’ DIY SOS
Prince Harry lays some paving slabs during a visit to Manchester with his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, to help renovate homes for former service personnel as part of the BBC television series
PRINCE Harry has always been known as a bit of a charmer. But his flirting got him into trouble yesterday when a 60-year-old former dinner lady was bowled over by his banter, prompting her husband to express fears that she was about to run off with the young royal.
The Prince and his brother, the Duke of Cambridge, had donned hard hats, high visibility jackets and steel toe boots to help turn a derelict street into homes for Armed Forces veterans.
They joined presenter Nick Knowles and the BBC’s DIY SOS team of builders as well as hundreds of volunteers to help with the final stages of the project.
The Duke painted the kitchen of one of the 62 houses, while Prince Harry was tasked with laying paving stones in the garden, jubilantly throwing his hands up in the air on completion.
The rare chance to watch the pair show off their manual labour skills only endeared them to Margaret Wilkinson, who has lived on the road, in Newton Heath, Manchester, with her husband, John, for 28 years.
After chatting to the broth- ers, Mrs Wilkinson gushed that Prince Harry was “much better looking in real life” and admitted she was “completely in awe” of him.
“They’re just like their mother, both really polite and lovely young men,” she said.
Having watched her “flirt up a storm” with the 31-yearold, Mr Wilkinson felt moved to ask the Duke what might happen if he ended up getting into a tug-of-love fight with a prince. “Don’t worry, we’d sort it out,” came the tongue-in-cheek reply.
Mr Wilkinson, 58, a retired chemical worker who now cares for his wife fulltime as she suffers from osteoarthritis, said the brothers had both shown a real interest in the street and the building project.
“They were gentlemen,” he said. “They were more flirting with Margaret than anyone else. She was well chuffed with Harry. I think she is going to leave me.”
He said the project had prevented their home from being demolished and expressed hopes that it might prove a catalyst for people to undertake similar projects for soldiers and their families around the country.