Prince Charles on missing grandchildren and Prince Philip: 'You really want to give people a hug'
The Prince of Wales has spoken of missing his family "terribly" in lockdown, saying he has not seen his father the Duke of Edinburgh for a "long time" and 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 grandchildren Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, who is 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.
Interviewed via video call by Sky News for the After The Pandemic series, the Prince was asked about being apart from his family.
"Well it's terribly sad, let alone one’s friends,” he said. “But fortunately, at least you can speak to them 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."
Of the Duke of Edinburgh, who celebrates his 99th birthday on June 10th 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 in March, in isolation along with a small number of household staff who work in three-week-long shifts to protect them from coronavirus.
Told by interviewer Rhiannon Mills that the time to embrace loved ones will hopefully be coming soon, 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 at the same time around us."
During the interview, which was screened on Thursday evening, the prince said contracting coronavirus made him more determined to "push and shout and prod" and he called for nature to return to the "centre of everything we do".
On Wednesday, he launched the “Great Reset”, his proposals for rebuilding a more environmentally-friendly economy as the world recovered 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.
“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.
“But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, I’m so determined to find a way out of this.”
Urging the private sector to put planet first, he added: "We have a golden opportunity to seize something good from this crisis.”
