Prince William reveals Kate Middleton is ‘very sorry’ she hasn’t joined him for Earthshot awards in Singapore because she is helping Prince George with his ‘first set of major exams’
- Kate has stayed at home to help the 10-year-old Prince study
- READ MORE: Prince George is training for a triathlon
Prince William has revealed that his wife hasn’t joined him on his Earthshot trip to Singapore because she is is helping Prince George with his ‘first set of major exams’.
The Princess of Wales, 41, has stayed at home in Windsor while William, also 41, headed to south east Asia to present his environmental prize.
Speaking at an United for Wildlife summit, the future king apologised for his wife’s absence.
‘I’m delighted to be back in Singapore, it’s been 11 years since Catherine and I enjoyed a visit here on behalf of my late grandmother, for her Diamond Jubilee year,’ he explained.
‘I should mentioned Catherine is very sorry she can’t be here, she’s helping George through his first set of major exams,’.
Prince William has revealed that his wife hasn’t joined him on his Earthshot trip to Singapore because she is is helping Prince George with his ‘first set of major exams’
The Princess of Wales , 41, has stayed at home in Windsor while William, also 41, headed to south east Asia to present his environmental prize. William and Kate are pictured with George, Louis and Charlotte on their first day of school at Lambrook school in Berkshire
Kate, who has attended the previous two Earthshot awards in Boston and London, is helping her 10-year-old son revise for his upcoming entrance exams.
Last month, the Princess of Wales revealed she is helping George with practice exams.
Kate spoke to pupils preparing for their A-levels exams at the Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, as part of a visit to Wales to mark the start of Black History Month.
George, who is in Year 6 at the Lambrook School in Berkshire, is preparing for entrance exams for secondary school this year.
‘George is just at the beginning of being tested. He says: “Mummy, I keep getting tested all the time,” she said.
After she discussed George’s early experience with exams, she remarked: ‘But when it gets to A-levels you feel like you’re on it.’
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have joined the co-educational private school near Ascot in Berkshire, after the Wales’ moved to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor’s Home Park.
William and Kate set their hearts on the outdoorsy preparatory school with its 52 acres of grounds for their youngsters where fees will cost them in excess of £50,000 a year and pupils are given ‘feathers to fly’ and a ‘delicious sense of freedom’.
William is seen talking to former Conservative leader William Hague at the event
Speaking at an United for Wildlife summit, the future king apologised for his wife’s absence. He is pictured with David Fein, Co-Chair of United for Wildlife
It comes after William took place in a a Dragon Boat race in the morning
The school offers both weekly boarding and flexi boarding – where they can opt for a night’s stay as and when they choose, but George and Charlotte are day pupils for the time being.
William and Kate have also reportedly been spotted looking at Eton with Prince George, perhaps suggesting the future king will follow in his father’s footsteps in three years time.
It comes as it was revealed George is training for a triathlon at school.
The second-in-line has been putting talcum powder in his shoes when taking part in the sport – made up of cycling, running and swimming at his school.
Prince William told triathlete, Non Stanford, of his eldest son’s latest passion whilst presenting her with an MBE on Tuesday.
Stanford, 34, who bagged a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, was being honoured for her services to triathlon in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.
She told the Mirror : ‘He [William] was telling me how George has been doing triathlon at school.
‘There is also a gentleman who now works for William, has done a bit of triathlon and has been giving George advice about putting talcum powder in his shoes,’ she added.
Last month, the Princess of Wales revealed she is helping George with practice exams. Kate spoke to pupils preparing for their A-levels exams at the Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, as part of a visit to Wales to mark the start of Black History Month
‘George has been sharing his talc with his classmates and they are all excited about these tips.’
William is in Singapore for the Earthshot Prize ceremony on Tuesday, aimed at recognising solutions to ‘repair’ the planet, and will see five category winners presented with £1 million each to scale up their environmental ideas.
Founded by the prince and The Royal Foundation in 2014, United for Wildlife aims to make it impossible for traffickers to transport, finance or profit from illegal wildlife products.
During his speech, William said flora and fauna is the fourth most traded illegal commodity in the world, worth up to 20 billion dollars (£16.1 billion), which is a ‘global issue that demands immediate attention from us all’.
William told attendees the focus of his visit this week is ‘how we collectively overcome our planet’s greatest environmental challenges’.
The prince said: ‘This United for Wildlife summit will address how to protect our natural world from the international criminal gangs intent on plundering it.
‘The world is losing its most precious natural resources at a frightening pace, all in the name of greed and exploitation.’
Kate, who has attended the previous two Earthshot awards in Boston and London , is helping her 10-year-old son revise for his upcoming entrance exams. Pictured in Boston last year
William, Prince of Wales speaks to attendees at the United for Wildlife Global Summit at the Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay
He then listed some statistics including: Wildlife populations have plummeted by almost 70 per cent in the last 50 years; intense poaching has caused Kruger national park’s rhino population to drop by 60 per cent since 2013; Namibia saw a 93 per cent increase in rhino poaching from 2021 to 2022; and on average a rhino is poached every 20 hours.
William added that the criminals that trade rhino horn, tiger paws and pangolin scales are part of the same ‘highly organised gangs that traffic drugs, arms and people’ – making the illegal wildlife trade ‘as much a human crisis as an environmental one’.
And the families of more than 1,500 rangers who have died in the line of duty ‘need no reminding of that’, nor do the families who have lost loved ones to the ‘underworld of modern-day slavery, conflict or acts of terrorism that have been financed by profits from the illegal wildlife trade’.
William said he is ‘incredibly proud’ that United for Wildlife’s network has supported more than 600 investigations, nearly 300 seizures of illegal wildlife products, and the training of more than 110,000 people to tackle wildlife crime.
He added: ‘But our work is far from over, we must be more determined, more innovative, and more resourceful in the relentless pursuit of our mission to defeat this trade.’
As part of his speech at the summit, William announced that United for Wildlife has led the creation of a ‘world-first’ international statement of principles, agreed by governments to ‘prevent, detect, and deter the financial activity that sustains the illegal wildlife trade’.
Signatories including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, the US, South Africa and Singapore, will commit to regular cooperation to combat money laundering from transnational criminal syndicates engaged in the illegal wildlife trade.
William said this level of ongoing support will ‘facilitate joint investigations and lead to more high value seizures and arrests’.
The prince ended his speech by saying: ‘Compared to other global problems, stopping the illegal wildlife trade should be relatively straightforward.
‘We know where the animals are being poached. We know the routes through which they are illegally transported. We know the financial systems that criminal networks are exploiting to finance their trade, and we know the main markets that are fuelling the demand for it.
‘Let’s use this summit to renew our collective determination to defeat the criminal gangs who inflict such unnecessary environmental and human loss.
‘This is a battle that can and must be won.’
William arrived in south-east Asia to cheering crowds at at Jewel, a nature-themed complex at Changi Airport, on Sunday evening, then won a dragon boat race on the Marina Reservoir against a backdrop of Singapore’s most famous landmarks on Monday morning before meeting the President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, at the Istana.
Prince William founded the awards in 2020, saying he wanted to turn ‘current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism by celebrating the people and places driving change’.
Every year between 2021 and 2030, an awards ceremony will honour winners in the prize’s five categories who are creating innovations which tackle environmental issues. Each winner is given £1million to support and scale their work.
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