Showing off her sweeter side, the Princess of Wales joked that the Icelandic chair looks “very decent” as he prepares to climb Mount Everest for charity.
A second clip of Kate, 41, and Richard Walker chatting in the aisle of a supermarket in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was posted to Mr Walker’s Instagram account after their conversation last month as part of her crusade to improve development in the early years.
In the clip, which is a continuation of their initial conversation about how companies can help people up the career ladder as part of the Shaping Us campaign, Mr Walker revealed that he is doing a charity climb of a Nepalese mountain in memory of his late mother, Mrs. Walker.
When asked by Kate, who represented Main Street in a classic white tweet, why he did such tremendous physical labor, he revealed that his mother had died after an early struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, when she was just 63 years old.
Kate joked, “That’s why you look so fit!”
Mr Walker explained that after his mother was first diagnosed 12 years ago, he and his father first attempted to climb Mount Everest and managed to get halfway there, raising £1 million for charity.
“We were exactly the same kind of people you hear about who had nothing to do with being on the mountain,” he joked.
Kate laughed and replied, “I loved it!” They added that it was “surprising” that they had raised so much money.
The Icelandic president added that he wanted to raise another £1m with the aim of setting up a center that specifically supports people with dementia – particularly less common forms of the disease.
The Princess of Wales spoke with Richard Walker, President of Iceland, at a supermarket branch in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where they talked about his charity Mount Everest, in a video posted to Instagram.
The mother-of-three (pictured) looked comfy and chic in a white tweed jacket from Zara as the couple chatted
The mother-of-three said: “I am so sorry for your loss, but I am sure she would be very proud; not only for what you are doing here in Iceland but for your ambition for the future as well.
“So, very exciting – if not a little terrifying – times await you!”
The video was the second part of a conversation between the Prince Royal and the President of Iceland last month as part of the Shaping Us campaign from the Princess’s Royal Foundation early childhood centre.
In the first part of the conversation, the couple discussed how companies like Iceland can help develop children in the early years so they can build skills that will help them excel in their careers later in life.
During the conversation, Mr. Walker and I discussed how companies can support children and their caregivers to help lay the foundations for key employability skills “in the early years of our lives.”
In the clip, Kate tells Mr Walker: “You hear over and over again that these soft skills are, you know, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, flexibility and flexibility.
“You know, these are the things you hear companies look for and it’s really exciting to see how, oftentimes, the foundations of these skills are built in the early years of our lives.”
Mr Walker added: “Looking at the ‘Shaping Us’ campaign and reading some of the science behind it really challenged my thinking and got me thinking about what more we could do, personally as a parent, but also actually as a business.
‘Here’s the thing,’ Kate added, smiling, nodding, ‘is that a lot of your employees and also customers and their parents and their grandparents, we all know it’s important to look after their health because those are the people raising kids today.’
She later said: “It’s really important that we all support the most vulnerable in our communities, especially now, yes, when they are all struggling, community support is needed now more than ever.”
Kate said employers play an important role in enabling parents to balance a successful work life with a nurturing home life for their children.
Writing at FT Weekend last month, the future queen said investing in early childhood is “a down payment for our collective future.”
Kate hopes the global companies that have joined her team will be a catalyst for change and encourages companies across the country to train employees and help them maintain their social and emotional well-being, which helps them in work and home life.
Writing for the Financial Times, the mother-of-three said: “Our resilience, resilience, ability to manage stress and stay motivated when faced with challenges are all shaped by the foundations we build in early childhood.
However, not enough emphasis is placed on social and emotional development or on building environments that nurture these skills, both during childhood and beyond.
“Parental well-being is the single largest determinant of child well-being and we know that being a parent puts extra stress on mental health.
Almost 75% of people find raising children under the age of five stressful.
We also know that fathers make up a large part of the UK workforce – 76% of mothers and 92% of fathers with children work.
We must recognize the challenge many of these parents and other caregivers face in balancing a successful work life and a nurturing home life during their children’s formative years.
“Employers have an important role to play in making this possible.”
Kate said she thinks there are two things that need to be done.
The first is to prioritize creating work environments that provide the support people need to develop and maintain their social and emotional health.
“The second is to focus more on the social and emotional development of our young children,” she said.
Concluding her article, the princess said: “As the world becomes ever more complex, we must invest in early childhood now, as a down payment for our collective future.
If business and commerce embrace this important issue—including how early childhood will best influence their organizations now and in the long term—we can and will change the lives of generations to come.
Earlier this week, the Princess of Wales urged business leaders to prioritize well-being in the workplace to support family life as she launched the Early Childhood Task Force, of which supermarket giant Iceland is a member.
To read more about Mr. Walker’s charity climb of Mount Everest, click here here
