Prince William reveals he talks to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis about the environment ‘all the time’ and reveals major priority

Prince William revealed that he talks to his children all the time about the environment and says getting them out playing in nature is a priority.

The heir to the throne, 42, joined Hannah Waddingham at Alexandra Palace in North London to promote his new environmental documentary The Earthshot Report, which aired on BBC1 yesterday evening.

At one moment in the interview Waddingham asked the Prince about his ‘three little people’ and he revealed the importance of getting Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, out in nature. 

William said: ‘I talk to my children all the time about it and it’s important that they see, touch, feel and go into nature.

‘It’s very hard for people to understand what is the point in protecting it if you never use it and it’s really important that we get people out into nature because then they will value it.

‘We can’t take for granted what we have, we have to protect it and we have to look after it, we have to think about it in a way that is sustainable and beneficial for all of us.’

Dressed in plastic-free trainers by the British brand HEVEA and a casual blue jumper, the Prince appeared relaxed as he threw darts with Waddingham, 50, and sipped a pint of cider at the bar.

Indeed, the game appeared to bring back memories of his time as a student at St Andrews University, where he has previously admitted to being a darts regular.

‘Don’t let us start a drinking game, we’ll be here all day doing that as well,’ joked William.

In the video, Waddingham quizzed the Prince about his sustainability prize.

‘What on earth is your obsession with seaweed all about?’ she asked, leading William to talk about the prize winner Notpla, which makes food packaging from plants and seaweed.

The Prince also explained how the prize was about ‘trying to stay positive about it [climate change] rather than negative’.

‘That’s where the [idea for the] award ceremony came from, to celebrate talent and solutions, rather than tell people, ‘Don’t do this or don’t do that.’

‘You have to be so careful because there’s been a lot of that.’

Perhaps throwing a verbal dart at his brother Prince Harry, who has come under fire for using private jets, William added: ‘I don’t want to preach… I want to find solutions.’

During the nine-minute sketch, which was filmed last week and released by Kensington Palace yesterday, the royal missed the dart board entirely.

‘Cut!’ the Prince joked, while Waddingham said to the cameras: ‘Can we get a close-up on this?’

Affectionately known as Ally Pally, the north-London venue also staged the first Earthshot Prize awards ceremony in 2021, with Boston hosting the following year; Singapore, co-hosted by Waddingham, in 2023 and last month it was Cape Town’s turn.

William founded the prize to recognise and scale up ideas to help ‘repair’ the planet, with five winning finalists each awarded £1 million to develop their ideas further.

Awards are presented in five categories, or Earthshots – Protect and restore nature; clean our air, revive our oceans; build a waste-free world; and fix our climate.

During the darts match, William tells the actress about his goals for the prize: ‘It took a long time, I wasn’t sure how to create and galvanise action, the element of trying to stay positive about everything rather than negative was really important.

‘So that’s where the awards ceremony came from, which was to celebrate talent and solutions, rather than tell people ‘don’t do this and don’t do that’, you have to be so careful.

‘I don’t want to preach, I want to find solutions because that’s always healthier for everyone.’

It comes after the Prince said he hopes his children are ‘proud’ of his Earthshot Prize ahead of the glitzy environmental awards ceremony in Cape Town last month.

The royal said he hoped Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis and his wife the Princess of Wales would be watching back home.

William was speaking to the BBC and Sky News as he prepared to host his fourth annual Earthshot Awards designed to highlight and scale up the best solutions on the planet to the current environmental crisis.

He also said Kate was ‘doing really well, paying tribute to how she had been ‘amazing’ during her tough year of cancer treatment.

‘She’s doing really well thanks. And… hopefully she is watching tonight. So cheering me on. She’s been she’s been amazing this whole this whole year. I know she will be really keen to see tonight be a success,’ he said.

William said that he and his family, like so many, have conversations about trying to ‘do what they can’ at home.

The prince said: ‘Yeah, well, you know, every family tries to do what they can to sort of help with the environment.

‘We go through all the basics of recycling and making sure we minimise water use and turning off lights when we leave the house and stuff like that, and making sure, which is sensible in what we do around the environment.

‘I think every family has these conversations. You just try to do what you can. ‘

‘The Earthshot Prize has got to be a bit more global than that. We are trying to do big scale ambition and big scale business to tackle some of the solutions.

‘But I brought the children along that journey and tonight I hope they are watching and they are proud of kind of what we are try to do here, which is to really galvanise that energy that enthusiasm to make real impact.’

He also spoke about the friendship bracelet he has been seen wearing bearing the word ‘Papa’ on, made for him by his daughter Princess Charlotte, which he has ‘promised’ not to lose. 

‘Well, this is… a relic, if you like, from a Taylor Swift concert that my daughter decided that she wanted to create a bracelet for. She gave it to me when I came away. So I promised that wear it and try not to lose while I was out here,’ he said.

William was infectious in his enthusiasm as he spoke about Earthshot, which he has brought for the first time to Africa this year.