Prince William has been travelling in South Africa for the past few days, where he presented the Earthshot environmental awards he founded, met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and visited Signal Hill in Cape Town .
At the end of the trip, a reporter told him he seemed relaxed. William’s reaction was clear: “I couldn’t be less relaxed this year.”
The 42-year-old spoke unusually openly about the personal stresses of the past few months.
“To be honest, it was terrible. It was probably the hardest year of my life.” It was difficult to keep everything on track.
At the beginning of the year, the royal family announced that William’s father, King Charles III, was being treated for an unspecified form of cancer.
In March, William’s wife Kate also announced a cancer diagnosis. She received chemotherapy – the completion of which she recently announced in a video .
In the meantime, William attended fewer public events in order to spend more time with his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
It was difficult, William said in Cape Town. “But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father that they got things done,” he was quoted as saying. “But from a personal family point of view, yes, it was brutal.”
The interview also covered lighter topics. For example, William also talked about how his daughter reacted to his beard – he has only had it for a few months .
“Charlotte didn’t like it at first,” said William. There were a lot of tears, so he shaved again. It took a lot of convincing, “and I convinced her that everything would be fine.” So the beard is back.
