The Princess of Wales showed off her flirtatious side as she joked that Iceland’s president looked “super fit” as he prepared to climb Mount Everest for charity.
A second clip of Kate, 41, and Richard Walker chatting in the aisle of the supermarket store in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was posted to Walker’s Instagram account following their conversation last month as part of her crusade to enhance early years development.
In the clip, which is a continuation of their initial conversation about how companies can help people climb careers as part of the Shaping Us campaign, Mr. Walker revealed that he will undertake the charity climb of the Nepalese mountain in memory of his late mother. Mrs Walker.
When Kate, who was repping the high street in her classic white tweet blazer, asked him why he was undertaking the massive physical feat, he revealed that his mother had died after suffering early Alzheimer’s, when he was just 63.
Kate quipped: ‘So that’s why you look super fit!’
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 make it halfway up, raising £1 million for charity.
He quipped, “We were exactly the kind of people you hear about who don’t have to be on the mountain.”
Kate laughed and replied, ‘I love it!’ and she added that it was ‘unbelievable’ that they had raised so much money.
The Iceland boss added that he wanted to raise another £1m with a view to establishing a center that would specifically support people who have dementia, particularly the less common forms of the disease.
The mother-of-three said: ‘I’m so sorry for your loss, but I’m sure she would be very proud; not only about what you are doing here in Iceland, but also about your ambition for the future.
‘So, some very exciting times are ahead for you, if not a little scary!’
The video clip was the second part of a conversation between the royals and Iceland’s chief last month as part of the Princess’s Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood’s Shaping Us campaign.
In the first part of the talk, the pair discussed how companies like Iceland can support children’s early development so they can develop skills that will help them excel in their future careers.
During the conversation, he discussed with Mr Walker how companies can support children and their carers to help lay the foundation 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, you know, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, flexibility, resilience.”
“You know, these are things that you’d hear companies are looking for and it’s really interesting to see how, actually, so often the foundation for those skills is built in the first few years of our lives.”
Mr Walker added: “Looking at the Shaping Us campaign and reading some of the science behind it, it really challenged my thinking and made me think about what else we can do, personally as a parent, but also as a business.”
Kate nodded, adding, “That’s the thing, is that many of your employees, but also customers, their parents, their grandparents, we all know that it’s important to take care of their well-being because those are the people who are raising children today.” . .’
He later said: “It’s really important that all of us are supporting the most vulnerable in our communities and particularly now, yes, when everyone is struggling, community support is needed now more than ever.”
Kate has said that employers have an important role in enabling parents to balance a successful work life with an enriching home life for their children.
Writing in FT Weekend last month, the future Queen said that investing in early childhood is “a down payment for our collective future”.
Kate hopes that the global companies that have joined her task force will be the catalyst for change and encourage companies across the country to train and help staff maintain their social and emotional well-being, helping their work and family lives. .
In her article for the FT, the mother of three said: “Our resilience, flexibility, ability to manage stress and stay motivated when faced with challenges are 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 foster these skills, during childhood and beyond.
“The well-being of the parents is the single most important factor in determining the well-being of a child, and we know that becoming a parent puts additional pressure on mental health.
‘Almost 75% of people find raising children under the age of five stressful.
“We also know that parents make up a significant part of the UK workforce – 76% of mothers and 92% of fathers with children are in work.
‘We must recognize the challenge for many of these parents and other caregivers in balancing a successful work life with an enriching home life during their children’s formative years.
“Employers have an important role in making this possible.”
Kate said that she thinks two things should be done.
‘The first is to prioritize creating work environments that provide the support people need to cultivate and maintain their own social and emotional well-being.
“The second is a more concentrated focus on the social and emotional development of our youngest children,” he said.
Concluding her article, the princess said: ‘As the world becomes increasingly complex, we need to invest in early childhood now, as a down payment for our collective future.
“If business and business embrace this important issue, including how better early childhood will affect their own organizations both now and in the long term, we can and will transform the lives of generations to come.”
Earlier this week, the Princess of Wales urged business leaders to prioritize wellbeing in the workplace to support family life when she launched her Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, of which supermarket giant Iceland is a member.
To read more about Mr. Walker’s charity climb of Mount Everest, click here
