Camilla compares Prince Charles to a mountain goat, as she calls him 'fittest man I know'
The Duchess of Cornwall has compared her husband Prince Charles to a “mountain goat” as she said he is the “fittest man” she knows.
Camilla, 72, made the comments in an interview as she prepares to guest edit a radio show for the first time.
In a pre-recorded interview, she talked about Charles catching coronavirus earlier this year, explaining to Radio 5Live’s Emma Barnett: “He is probably the fittest man of his age I know. He’ll walk and walk and walk.
“He’s like a mountain goat, he leaves everybody miles behind.”
Charles, 71, said he only got mild symptoms when he had coronavirus, which he tested positive for in March. Camilla tested negative.
The duchess also talked about missing her grandchildren in the radio interview, expressing how difficult it is not to hug them when they were reunited.
She said: “You’re so excited because you haven’t seen them for three-and-a-half months. Your first reaction is to run up and hug them, and you have to sort of put up your hands. It’s a very odd feeling.”
Camilla revealed she had seen her grandchildren as she and Charles returned to in-person visits in June after lockdown measures had eased, and they left Scotland where they had been for several months.
She called it a “great treat”.
The royals are all understood to have kept in touch with each other via video calling, and have spoken about using technology to make sure grandparents and grandchildren don’t miss out.
In the interview, Camilla said: “I’m ashamed to say that I really hated the internet. I didn’t understand it and I thought, ‘what’s the point of this?’.
“Since lockdown, it’s been so brilliant because I’ve been able to communicate with family, my children, my friends.
“But it’s also taught children … otherwise children who aren’t at school what would they have done without it?”
Read more: 100 things the Royal Family has done in 100 days of lockdown
And like many others in lockdown, Camilla has enjoyed a casual dress code, swapping her dresses for jeans at home.
She said: “I’ve been very, very happy with my jeans. It will be very hard to get out of them again. I think you get into a sort of way of life, don’t you?”
Camilla will also raise issues around domestic violence and abuse, an issue she has been working and campaigning on for several years.
She has now become a patron of SafeLives, a charity she has been linked with for some time, and has spoken about fears of the numbers of people suffering abuse during lockdown.
She will recall the story she heard about a man who used a hammer to kill his wife, which started her work with domestic abuse charities.
Camilla said: “I don’t think any of us could believe what we were hearing. I could feel the tears starting to drip down my face.
“It was so moving and so horrific that afterwards, I met her mother, a grandmother who had taken charge of the children.
“I just remember saying to her that ‘I don’t know what I can do, but if there’s anything, I promise you, I’ll try and find a way’. That’s really how it began.”
The Emma Barnett show is on Radio 5Live from 10am to 1pm Monday to Thursday.
