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Prince William reveals Kate’s getting him into Monty Don so he can garden like his father

<p>The Duke of Cambridge visiting the Brighter Futures in Rhyl, Denbighshire, on Thursday</p> (REUTERS)

The Duke of Cambridge visiting the Brighter Futures in Rhyl, Denbighshire, on Thursday

(REUTERS)

The Duke of Cambridge has revealed that his wife is getting him into Monty Don so he can garden just like his dad.

Prince William joked his wife Catherine “does all the gardening” but he’s trying to learn the ropes so he has something to share with Prince Charles.

William, 38, was chatting to Brian Penney, 52, who is a coordinator for Men’s Sheds - a community project that encourages isolated men to build things and grow vegetables together.

He ribbed Brian for his watering can while he showed him their allotment in Rhyl, North Wales, joking: “It’s good to see you have got really nice watering cans. Nice pink colour.

“That’s a lovely mermaid. Very masculine for the Men’s Shed.”

The Prince laughed as he added: “I always find something to embarrass people with.”

The pair then chatted about gardening during the visit on Thursday, with His Royal Highness telling Brian: “My wife does all the gardening.

“I really like it but I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Brian said afterwards: “He told me Kate is getting him into gardening. She’s going to get him Monty Don’s book.

“He said she wants to get him into it because Charles is into it, so it’s something for them to enjoy together. He was so down to earth, such a nice man.”

William was visiting Brighter Futures in Rhyl to hear about how the organisation is supporting the needs of the local community.

Getty Images
Getty Images

The project was started in 2018 and sees eight local groups work together to support local children, young people, families and the older generations to participate in the community.

It includes the Men’s Sheds project which has 70 outlets across Wales where they look out for isolated and vulnerable men and get them to work on building projects together.

Co-ordinator Stephen Johnson showed him a trebuchet competition between all the Men’s Sheds who each built the medieval weaponry.

Stephen joked: “We sort of made ours too big. It was 12 feet.”

William laughed and said: “Yours would breach a castle wall! I love it.”

PA
PA

He also commended the men on the importance of their work in the pandemic. He told regional development officer Simon Poole: “With the rural areas these are really important. That might be the only contact these men get.

“They are more needed now than ever before. Mental health issues are going to grow more and more, there’s already a big backlog.

“What worries me is how do you find the guys we don’t know about? How do we get them out?

“The word community has really risen all over the country over this pandemic.

”He was just down the road from his beloved Anglesey, where he lived with Kate, 39, from 2010 to 2013 while he was an RAF helicopter pilot at RAF Valley.”

William said: “I haven’t been back to Anglesey in a while. When I’m this close I feel I need to pop in and see how everyone is doing.”

William also met some of the youngest volunteers at the centre - Shayna Slattery, 16, Ellie Wilkinson, 16, and Tamsin Jones 13 - who are part of Rhyl Youth Group.

They help support other children in the area by getting them into sports and demonstrated their football skills - before accidently kicking the ball over their wall.

William joked: “Who’s going to go and get the ball? I hope you have got some nice neighbours.”

Dressed in a blue suit and green jumper, he charmed all the volunteers at Brighter Futures during an hour-long visit from 11.45am.

He was shown how they transformed the centre from a building site into a centre for the community to plant vegetables, craft materials and support isolated people.

During the pandemic it has helped deliver food, PPE, sports and IT equipment as well as craft materials and games to alleviate the effects of lockdown.

He finished off by planting an apple tree to commemorate the visit, joking: “Next time I come there will be 300 apples on it.”

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