William laments hardest year of his life after King and Kate’s cancer battles- latest

The Prince of Wales has admitted he misses his former “life” working in search and rescue as he took to the seas with a lifeboat crew in Cape Town.

William kicked off his final day in South Africa with a visit to Simon’s Town Harbour, home to the country’s largest naval base.

He met volunteers working for the National Seas Rescue Institute (NSRI) to hear about their lifesaving work and asked what inspired them to get involved.

Before donning a life jacket and heading out with the crew, he asked how choppy the water was and joked that he should possibly be wearing more kit so he did not get wet.

William also revealed that he was trying to teach his three children about rip tides and admitted he wished his family had been with him for the four-day trip.

He was asked by a member of the crew if he had ever done search and rescue work, he replied: “I miss this life. Any chance to get back, I’ll take.”

The future King was a search and rescue helicopter pilot based at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales before working as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Prince William has spoken out about his “difficult” year after his father and wife went through their own cancer battles.

Asked how his year has been by reporters, the Prince of Wales replied: “Honestly? It’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life.”

“So, trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.

“But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for ­handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”

The King’s funeral plans have been officially upgraded to Operation London Bridge, to copy those of the late Queen Elizabeth, a royal expert has revealed.

In his new book, royal commentator Robert Hardman claimed that the Palace has also come up with new codenames for the Prince of Wales’s future death.

Mr Hardman said: “As Prince of Wales, the King’s funeral plan had been codenamed Operation Menai Bridge, from the great structure linking Anglesey to North Wales. That is now the code for the new Prince of Wales, with the ‘Menai’ designation for all his immediate family in numerical order.

“Prince William’s plans had previously been codenamed Operation Clare Bridge, after the famous crossing over the Cam, during his days as Duke of Cambridge. ‘You need a plan for everything.

“Sadly, we all remember the death of a member of the family who died in Paris without a plan,’ explains one Royal Household veteran, alluding to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. ‘We are so accustomed, in this country, to these things, solemn and tragic though they are, going really well with no one putting a foot wrong.

“If we suddenly couldn’t do that, there would be a big question about the way this country looks at itself.’”

With neither William nor Harry “showing great interest” in the property, a royal source has suggested it could one day be transformed into a “Museum of King Charles III.”

Writing in his biography book ‘New King, New Court, Charles III the inside story’ royal author Robert Hardman has shed light on the potential future of the monarch’s favourite retreat.

He said: “Neither of his sons has shown a great interest in taking on their childhood home. As a Duchy of Cornwall property (on a long lease to the King), Highgrove’s future will need to be decided by the current or future Duke of Cornwall. One close ally of the King has made an interesting suggestion.

“Given the King’s personal devotion to the place, and the way in which it encapsulates so much about the man, would it not make an ideal ‘Museum of King Charles III’ in years to come?”

The hit game show Family Feud has revealed what Americans really know about Prince Harry.

During a recent episode of the show, the Hernandez family competed against the Colley family, and they shared a few facts about Harry. In Family Feud, which has been running since 1976,  two families guess the most popular answers to survey questions to win cash prizes.

At the start of the recent episode, host Steve Harry asked contestants to say “something that people know about Prince Harry,” with the six correct answers hidden on the board. In response, Fabian Hernandez answered: “He’s married to Meghan Markle.”

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The Duchess of Edinburgh has been praised for her “funny” reaction after being hit on the head by a golf ball.

The incident last Tuesday happened when Sophie was playing mini golf as part of a visit to Legoland as patron of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Photographer Tim Rooke, who captured the moment, said the Duchess “laughed” and “found it funny.”

He told Hello: “The Duchess was playing adventure golf, going around with the kids. She hit the ball, and it bounced straight up in the air. You could see her watching it, and it just sort of whacked her.

“She laughed; she found it funny – she’s a good sport. You can see the guy behind her in the picture was in hysterics.

“She doesn’t mind a photo like this going around – what she cares about is raising awareness of the charity. She is really good at these events; she always makes everyone feel quite special.”

The King is cutting financial ties to the disgraced Duke of York after he refused to move out of his home, a royal writer has claimed.

In what is a new low in the brothers’ relationship, Prince Andrew’s annual £1 million “living allowance” has been withdrawn by Charles, according to a new book by Robert Hardman.

The move will be seen as another step the monarch has taken to publicly distance himself from his younger brother following his association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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The royal family have been accused in Parliament of levying charges on land that “doesn’t really belong to them”.

The criticism came after a Sunday Times and Channel 4 expose was published on the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which fund the King and the Prince of Wales.

The report revealed that the royals are making millions of pounds a year by charging government departments, councils, businesses, mining companies and the general public via a series of commercial rents and feudal levies on land seized by medieval monarchs.

Lord Berkeley, who questioned the legitimacy of this ownership, said he has seen the effects of this where he lives on the Isles of Scilly, where most the land and nearly a third of the residential buildings are owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.

He said: “We’ve got one example of farmers on the Isles of Scilly, [who] want to see an abattoir built so they don’t have to transport animals to the mainland, which I think is a very good idea.

“The Duchy said, ‘well you can have the land’ – well, many of us think that they don’t own the land anyway, but leaving that to one side – they allocate land to an abattoir, they are then going to charge the farmer for using it.

“Is that right when the land probably doesn’t really belong to them and they’re not contributing to the cost?”