Prince William and his 10-year-old son George have made their first public appearance together since it was revealed that Catherine, Princess of Wales was having treatment for cancer.
The football-loving father and son were cheering on Aston Villa at the UEFA Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg match between their team and Lille OSC at Villa Park in Birmingham on April 11.
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George was wearing an Aston Villa scarf and seemed to be enjoying the game as much as his Aston Villa-mad Dad.
Happily for them, Aston Villa won the match 2-1.
After the event, Prince William joked to sports writer Neil Moxley of Sunday People that “two-nil would have been better”, The Sun reported.
Asked if Prince George was now “part of the pride”, William replied: “Oh, yes, he’s loving it.”
The father-son outing came after William made his first personal social media post after Kate’s diagnosis was revealed — and it, too, was Aston Villa themed.
He took to the official Wales Instagram account on Wednesday to comment on the semi-retirement of Aston Villa and Lioness player, Rachel Daly, of whom he is clearly a fan.
“Thank you for so many unforgettable performances,” he wrote in Instagram Stories after Daly announced her international career with the Lionesses was over.
“Plenty more goals for Villa now!”
The message was simply signed “W.”
When an initial appears next to a caption, such as the one above, it usually means the message has been written directly by William or Kate, rather than a member of their social media team.
While it was a short, simple message about football, rather than anything too emotional or family-related, Daly’s retirement was clearly something the football-loving Prince wanted to acknowledge publicly.
Before this, William’s previous post was to share news about an official royal engagement, two days before Kate shared her diagnosis video.
Posted on March 21, it was about a visit to the barracks of the Welsh Guards to speak with soldiers there.
But many fans went to the comments section two days later, on March 23, when Kate’s cancer battle was revealed after weeks of speculation on her absence from public life.
“The ‘Where is Kate?’ folks, did you get your questioned answered now?!” one fan fumed.
“Now that we all know what is happening in this family, I hope that all the people who asked for the truth feel ashamed for their harassing behaviour,” wrote another.
“Prince William is doing a fantastic job under difficult circumstances,” added a third.
“To think this whole time you were putting on a brave face and still managing to work knowing what your wife is going through.
“Hugs to you both.
“May Kate and your family heal in peace.”
