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Prince William loves chicken tikka masala and his go-to karaoke song is Bohemian Rhapsody. Those were just two of the unexpected facts that listeners learned about HRH, when he appeared in a special episode of BBC Radio Five Live’s That Peter Crouch Podcast.
The episode was recorded in two parts, at Kensington Palace in March, and via video call earlier this month. The Duke sat down with Peter Crouch, alongside Tom Fordyce and Chris Stark, to discuss the importance of talking about mental health.
“We all have mental health, and we all have to stay mentally fit,” he said. “It’s a strength to talk about your mental health, it’s not a weakness. You know, if you’re not feeling well, something’s bothering you, talk about it – it’s not a problem.”
The episode was released to coincide with this weekend’s FA Cup Final, which has been officially renamed the ‘Heads Up’ FA Cup Final, to encourage further conversations about mental health, both on and off the pitch.
This follows HuffPost UK’s Head In The Game series, which saw athletes across a variety of disciplines speak candidly about their mental health.
But the podcast conversation between the four men – who sat down with beers and curry – took some unusual turns. Here are five things we learned about Prince William.
He isn’t great at buying gifts
The conversation turned to the worst presents bought for a partner, and Prince William admitted Kate hasn’t always been impressed with the results.
“I did get my wife a pair of binoculars once – she’s never let me forget that,” he said, while the three hosts laughed. “That was early on in the courtship, that was – think that sealed the deal….It didn’t go well. Honestly, I have no idea why I bought her a pair of binoculars, it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He’s a Queen fan
When asked about his favourite song to sing in public, William declared his love for Queen – the band, not his grandmother.
“To be honest, I’m not going to lie, I haven’t sung karaoke for a while now, but probably Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody,” he said. “It’s one of the few songs I know all the lyrics to.”
He’s been re-evaluating life since lockdown
Like many of us, the UK lockdown caused William to pause and “revalue” what’s important in life.
“This period of time has allowed us to all revalue things. The thing about lockdown is that it has been a little bit of an awakening that we maybe take our lives a bit for granted sometimes and there’s a lot of things out there that can wobble all of us at any time,” he said.
“I think particularly now, as a parent, it starts to make you look a bit more to the future at what kind of world we are going to hand over to the next generation. There’s been a lot of time to think – and you can also have too much time to think, and that’s also what worries me.”
He can’t handle spice
A bizarre moment of the podcast saw Prince William pause the conversation to answer the door, collecting a takeaway curry for the group. When asked his go-to order, he replied: “Chicken masala, love that, a bit of flavour – I’m not a vindaloo man, put it that way.”
He didn’t love homeschooling
William, it seems, will be pleased to see his children going back to school in September.
“I found it pretty testing, trying to keep the children engaged and interested in some sort of work,” he said. “It’s been an interesting few months.
“I’ve learned my patience is a lot shorter than I thought it was! That’s probably the biggest eye-opener for me, and my wife has super patience.”
