Sensitive subject. Prince William shared a sweet story about watching a documentary about animal extinction with his 7-year-old son, Prince George.
“The most recent [David Attenborough] one — the extinction one — actually George and I had to turn it off, we got so sad about it halfway through,” the Duke of Cambridge, 38, recently said while launching his environmental initiative, the Earthshot Prize, according to Sky News. “He said to me, ‘You know, I don’t want to watch this anymore.’”
The prince went on to say that his son asked, “Why has it come to this?”
William added, “He’s 7 years old, and he’s asking me these questions already. He really feels it, and I think every 7-year-old out there can relate to that. I really feel from an emotional point of view as well, I think every parent, everyone wants to do the best for their children. And I think we have to have a decade of change, a decade of repairing the planet so that we can hand it on to the next generation and future generations and sustain the prosperity for their lives too.”
George and his siblings, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2, met Attenborough, 94, last month. The nature historian gave William and Duchess Kate’s eldest son an ancient shark tooth he found in Malta.
“Sir David found the tooth on a family holiday to Malta in the late 1960s, embedded in the island’s soft yellow limestone which was laid down during the Miocene period some 23 million years ago,” the palace’s Instagram account explained in September. “Carcharocles is believed to have grown to 15 meters in length, which is about twice the length of the Great White, the largest shark alive today.”
While the culture minister of Malta, Jose Herrera, told the Times of Malta that he had “set the ball rolling” to get the artifact back, the European country’s government backpedaled, agreeing to let George keep the tooth.
Earlier this month, the little ones adorably shared some questions for Attenborough. “What animal do you think will become extinct next?” George asked on October 3, while Charlotte wanted to know whether the broadcaster loves spiders like she does. As for Louis, he asked, “What animal do you like?”
The footage, shared via Instagram, marked the first time that the royal kids had publicly spoken.
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