Duchess of Cambridge shows longer locks as she gives a glimpse into one of the Queen's homes
Watch: Kate praises nurse for going ‘extra mile’ by playing Bon Jovi to dying patient
The Duchess of Cambridge has shown her growing lockdown hairstyle as she is prevented from getting her hair cut just like the rest of England.
Kate, 39, is in Norfolk with her family during the third lockdown, and has been taking on video engagements again.
In the latest call, with nurses from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW), her dark hair was noticeably longer and straighter than her usual bouncy curls.
It’s also been revealed she was in her grandmother-in-law’s home, as she made the call from Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk home.
The royal residence is where the Queen has spent Christmas for the last 30 years, though she and her husband Prince Philip stayed in Windsor Castle in 2020.
The duchess had her own family portraits behind her as she borrowed a room in Sandringham, a short drive away from Anmer Hall, where she and William are homeschooling their three children.
Two houseplants added a pop of greenery and life behind the duchess, who was sat on a cream sofa with embroidered cushions.
The picture on the side looked to be one of the duchess with her youngest son, Prince Louis, at her Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2019.
Kate opted for a smart blazer and white shirt for the call, as well as pearl earrings.
The duchess was catching up with five nurses, hearing their stories of working during the pandemic, and thanking them for going the extra mile.
Vasu Lingappa told Kate about playing a Bon Jovi song for a patient whose wife could not be with him during his final moments.
Read more: Countess of Wessex 'so happy' as her father gets coronavirus vaccine
Lingappa said: “A lot of people are dying and we normally have families surrounding them during the last hour, but we’re not able to do that.
“And if I can give you a little example, we had a gentleman and unfortunately he was dying, so we spoke to his wife and she said, ‘I can’t come to see (him) but can you make sure you sing Bon Jovi and hold his hand?’
“And I said, ‘If I sing Bon Jovi in my accent. It won’t be appropriate’. So I took my phone out and played a YouTube video of Bon Jovi and I held his hand.”
He went on to say: “It’s been tough, but like I said earlier, I’m surrounded by some amazing people with lots of skills and inspirational stories.
“We are nurses (some) working in critical care for 30 years, 35 years, 40 years – so there is nothing they haven’t seen, but this is unprecedented.”
During the call, held on Wednesday 20 January, Kate said: “You hear time and time again about the amazing things nurses up and down the country are doing – going that extra mile.
“It’s the things that, you know, it’s not part of the training and the things that you’re taught, but the things that come from your heart.
“I think that’s what matters so much now, these acts of kindness to the patients you’re looking after, that are in your care, that family members aren’t able to be there, but you are going that extra mile and being there.”
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Kate praised another nurse who told the duchess she had been trying to tell people about the importance of the coronavirus vaccine.
Kate said it was “fantastic” that she wanted to “reassure the public”.
A nurse from UHCW administered the first coronavirus vaccine to grandmother Margaret Keenan in December at University Hospital in Coventry.
Since then more than 440,000 vaccines have been delivered across the Midlands.
Kate also checked in with the nurses, asking: “How are everyone’s spirits? I know we’re not through this yet, but how is everyone doing?”
Professor Nina Morgan, chief nursing officer at UCHW, replied: “Some of our nurses on our frontline wards find the shifts incredibly difficult because of the volume of people who have been admitted to our hospital who have Covid.
“When I’m walking round the ward and speaking to nurses, there are some who are absolutely visibly distressed and upset by what they’re seeing and what they’re experiencing.”
Prince William, 38, and Kate are thought to have travelled up to Norfolk with their children before London, where they had been living, was placed into additional restrictions.
They were spotted in Sandringham around Christmas time, when they were seen at a lights trail event on the Queen’s estate.
Read more: Countess of Wessex is emulating the Queen as she steps up royal duties
Their time slot was close to the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s, who were there with their children, and they were seen walking with them, breaking the rule of six which was in place.
At the time, a source at Sandringham said: “The two families were given separate consecutive slots to visit the trail just before it opened to the general public. They arrived and departed in their own family groups.
“As anyone with young children will know, there were moments on the 90-minute walk where it was difficult to keep the two family groups apart, particularly at bottlenecks on the trail.”
William and Kate spent the first lockdown in Norfolk too, and opened up about their experiences of homeschooling, with William sounding a little sarcastic as he called it “fun”.
Kate said their oldest son George, seven, was jealous of his sister Charlotte’s work.
The family had stayed in London during the November lockdown, when schools remained open. George and Charlotte, who is five, go to Thomas’s in Battersea, while two-year-old Louis is not yet at school.
Watch: Prince William and Kate speak to frontline workers
