Royals

Wills rushes home to Kate

Prince William has been on a whirlwind trip to Japan and China away from pregnant wife Kate Middleton.
Kate Middleton

As she heads into the final stretch of her pregnancy, a blooming Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, will be looking forward to getting some rest before the arrival of baby number two in April. Prince William, however, looks set to be busier than ever, juggling royal duties and fatherhood with his new job as a pilot in the Air Ambulance service.

There’ll be little chance of a break for her husband, though, who has just completed a whirlwind seven-day visit to Japan and China. William crammed a lot into the few days he spent in each country, including meeting survivors of the 2011 tsunami in Japan and laying a wreath in memory of Commonwealth servicemen who died while prisoners of war during World War II.

Eight months pregnant, Kate Middleton has been working hard while Wills has been away.

While there was a sombre tone to some of William’s engagements, there were also lighter moments. During a tour of a TV studio where a long-running historical drama is filmed, William (32) showed off his sense of fun by dressing in costume as a samurai warlord. He couldn’t help laughing when he saw himself. “Now I feel ready for action,” he joked. He did, however, refuse to wear a traditional wig, as he said his brother Prince Harry “would never let him forget it”.

Prince William has been on a whirlwind trip to Japan and China.

Kate (33) has been winding down her schedule of official engagements and fitting in the occasional unofficial ones, such as attending the 105th birthday party for The Goring Hotel in London, where she stayed before her wedding. While she breezed through her latest royal duties, which have included touring a pottery factory and spending time with children at a centre for vulnerable families, she’ll be starting to feel the strain of being nearly eight months pregnant, and is expected to start maternity leave shortly.

Wills looked awkward in a traditional Japanese kimono while on his royal tour.

Later, he was seen looking a little awkward dressed in a traditional kimono-style garb for a dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but he appeared more relaxed as the evening progressed. From Japan, William moved on to spend three days in China, where he was wowed by the impressive Forbidden City in Beijing. Earlier in the day, he marked the start of a cultural collaboration between the UK and China by painting the eyes on a model of Shaun the Sheep, a character created by the British studio responsible for stop-motion film Wallace and Gromit.

When photographers asked him to pose with the sheep, he laughed, “You know I can’t do two things at once.” But he’s going to have to get better at multi-tasking once the new prince or princess arrives. He’s likely to have some time off to help Kate, but still has extra training to complete before he starts his new job – as a civilian helicopter pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance service – in the middle of the year. He recently passed the 14 exams needed to qualify for the role.

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