Prince William has mastered the art of hiding in plain sight.
During his short visit to New York City this week, the Prince of Wales (41) went out for an early morning run at Central Park and, apparently, no one noticed him. While attending the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, which was held at the Plaza Hotel, he sat down with previous winner Vaitea Cowan and confirmed that he kickstarted day two by working out in the morning.
One attendee captured the exchange on video, where Cowan asked Prince William, "Is it true? Did you go running in Central Park this morning?"
In response, he said, "I did, Vaitea, yes. I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine. It was wonderful waking up in New York on a sunny morning rather than the rain we had yesterday. It was beautiful getting some fresh air this morning."
It sounds like fellow runners had no idea they were in the presence of royalty that morning...
"It's been wonderful to be back. I think 2014 was the last time I was here," Prince William added, referring to his previous visit with Kate Middleton to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. "I’ve been trying to come back for a couple of years, but with COVID and my grandmother passing last year, it hasn’t been easy."
At the Summit, His Royal Highness also discussed why he founded the Earthshot Prize, which was designed to recognize changemakers for their contributions to environmentalism.
Prince William said, "It came about from a desire to see more change and to highlight wonderful people doing incredible things. I kept being shown these amazing things that were happening, and I just felt the impact from them wasn't being achieved, or the potential wasn't there when it could be. So, I was thinking, 'How do we elevate?' How do we scale this up? How do we allow more people to see this?'"
The prince added, "We’ve got to hang onto optimism and hope because it is the biggest driver of change, the biggest driver of innovation."
Keep up the amazing work, Prince William.
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