William And Kate Step Out Amid Ongoing Controversy Over Meghan’s Interview
The royal couple made a visit to an ambulance station in Newham, east London, in support of the emergency staffers working during the global pandemic. With the guidelines loosened up, Kate Middleton and Prince William stepped out for their royal duties, making a visit to an ambulance in London. This comes after the Meghan Markle and Prince Harry interview with Oprah, which put the royal family on the chopping block.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the ambulance station in Newham, east London, on Thursday morning where they met with the crews and paramedics stationed there about all the challenges they have been facing during this still on-going global pandemic.
Despite all the buzz about the interview, the only comment we have directly gotten from Prince William is a week ago when a reporter asked him about racism in the royal family, with William simply replying with: “We are not a racist family”.
On Thursday the whole focus was on giving support to all the staffers and medics at the station for their sacrifices and hardships they have to endure as they battle this virus on the frontlines. This station is the second-busiest station in London, which comes with its own challenges.
The royal couple met with paramedic Jahrin Khan in the Station’s Wellbeing Garden as she told the royals about how she coped with the pressure of responding to the global pandemic, including the impact it has had on her and her family due to the isolation.
In a surprising but sweet move, the royal were even able to meet Khan’s father on the phone from Bangladesh as she called him and introduced the royal couple.
It was quite an effective visit, with Kate learning more about the mental health and wellbeing support provided to staff of the station, including things such as drop-in sessions and wellbeing spaces, as well as some wider initiatives provided by London Ambulance Service, which includes their fleet of Wellbeing Tea Trucks. William has also had a busy week, with the Duke spending most of Wednesday on the phone talking to medical teams around the country and hearing out their stories.
The two royals also spoke with paramedic Shani Smith, who is part of one of these trucks and shared her experiences running it during the last 12 months. She explained to the couple how her mental health training came in useful when it came to providing support to her colleagues.
Those tea trucks go from hospital to hospital in London, providing hot drinks and snacks to staff and volunteers. This gives all the emergency workers a chance to take a moment to breathe in and rejuvenate.
Throughout the whole global pandemic, Prince William and Kate have been one of the biggest supporters of frontline health workers. The London Ambulance Service has received around $140,000 of funding from NHS Charities Together, of which the Duke and Duchess are patrons of. Their own Royal Foundation has helped set up Our Frontline, a one-to-one mental health resource that offers staffers access to help and advice as they navigate and take on hard cases and make even harder choices, which are detrimental to one’s wellbeing.
Back in November William, who is himself a former air ambulance helicopter pilot and has seen first-hand the important but critical work that first responders do, recognized how this pandemic has “presented a unique challenge for all emergency” staffers. In December, during their royal tour of Britain, Kate and William extended gratitude to health workers, teachers, and other frontline workers everywhere they went for all they have done during this global health crisis.
So far the whole Meghan Markle and Prince Harry thing is yet to be addressed officially, but after all the things that were revealed during the interview with Oprah, it’s hard to think that there will be a smooth end to this.
So far things have been going as normal, with the royal attending to their royal duties and not giving comments on the whole thing. On Saturday Kate made a private visit to a memorial set up to remember Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman whose remains were found on Friday, over a week after she disappeared in London. The Duchess placed flowers at the site in Clapham Common, an area close to Everard’s home in Brixton, where she was last seen walking before her disappearance on March 3rd.
“She wanted to pay her respects to Sarah and her family,” a royal source told PEOPLE. “She remembers what it felt like to walk around London at night.”