The Princess of Wales showed her flirty side when she joked that Iceland’s chair looked ‘super fit’ as he prepared to climb Mount Everest for charity.
A second clip of Kate, 41, and Richard Walker, chatting in the supermarket aisle in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has been posted to Mr Walker’s Instagram account following their chat last month as part of her crusade to to improve the development of the first years.
In the clip, which is a continuation of their first conversation about how companies can help people move up the career ladder as part of the Shaping Us campaign, Mr Walker revealed that he is undertaking the charity climb of the Nepalese mountain in memory of his late mother, Lady Walker.
When Kate, representing the high street in her classic white tweet blazer, asked why he was undertaking the massive physical feat, he revealed that his mother had passed away after suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease when she was just 63 years old.
Kate joked, “So that’s why you look super fit!”
Mr 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 get halfway through, raising £1million for charity.
He joked, “We were just the kind of people you hear have no business on the mountain.”
Kate laughed and replied, “I love that!” adding that it was “amazing” that they had raised so much money.
The Icelandic boss added that he wanted to raise a further £1 million with a view to setting up a center that would specifically support people living with dementia – particularly less common forms of the disease.
The Princess of Wales chatted with Richard Walker, President of Iceland, at the supermarket branch in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, as they talked about his charity climb of Mount Everest, in a video posted to Instagram
Mum-of-three Kate (pictured) looked relaxed yet elegant in a white tweed blazer from Zara as the pair chatted
The mother of three said, “I’m so sorry about your loss, but I’m sure she would be so proud; not only of what you do here in Iceland, but also of your ambition for the future.
“So very exciting times are coming for you – if not a little terrifying!”
The video clip was the second part of a conversation between the royal family and the Icelandic boss last month as part of the Princess’s Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood’s Shaping Us campaign.
In the first part of the chat, the pair discussed how companies like Iceland can help children with early childhood development so they can develop skills that will help them excel later in their careers.
During the interview, she discussed with Mr. Walker how companies can support children and their carers to build the foundations of essential early years employability skills.
In the clip, Kate tells Mr. Walker, “You hear over and over again that these soft skills, you know, the creativity, the collaboration, the critical thinking, the flexibility, the resilience.
“You know, these are things that you would hear that companies are looking for and it’s really interesting to see how, actually, so often, the foundations for those skills are laid in the earliest years of our lives.”
Mr Walker added: ‘Watching the Shaping Us campaign and reading some of the science behind it really challenged my thinking and made me think about what else we can do, personally as a parent, but also as a company.’
A nodding, smiling Kate added, “That’s the point, is that so many of your employees but also customers, their parents, their grandparents, we all know it’s important to take care of their well-being because those are the people who raise children today.’
She later said, “It is very important that we all support the most vulnerable in our communities and especially now, yes, when they are all struggling, community support is needed now more than ever.”
Kate has said that employers play an important role in enabling parents to combine a successful working life with a caring family life for their children.
The future queen wrote in FT Weekend last month that investing in early childhood is “a down payment on our collective future.”
Kate hopes that 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, benefiting their work and personal lives. good comes.
In her article for FT, the mother of three said: ‘Our resilience, flexibility, ability to handle stress and stay motivated when faced with challenges are all shaped by the foundations we laid in our early childhood. .
“However, there is not enough emphasis on social and emotional development or on building environments that nurture these skills, during childhood and beyond.
“Parent well-being is the biggest factor in determining a child’s well-being and we know that getting older puts additional strain on mental health.
‘Nearly 75% of people find parenting under the age of five stressful.
‘We also know that parents make up a significant proportion of the UK working population – 76% of mothers and 92% of fathers with children are in work.
“We must recognize that for many of these parents and other caregivers, it is a challenge to balance a successful working life with a caring family life during their children’s formative years.
‘Employers have an important role in making that possible.’
Kate said she believes two things need to happen.
“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,” she 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 commerce embrace this important issue – including how better early childhoods will impact their own organizations both now and in the long run – we can and will change the lives of future generations.”
Earlier this week, the Princess of Wales urged business leaders to prioritize workplace wellbeing 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 ascent of Mount Everest, click here here