Prince William admits he didn't attend Paris Olympics over Kate fears

Prince William says he missed the Paris Olympics over fears of contracting Covid and passing it onto his wife.

The Prince of Wales visited a group of Britain's top swimmers on Thursday at the Birtley Community Pool in Gateshead, where he revealed how concerns over his wife's health during her chemotherapy treatment led him to avoid attending Paris.

Speaking to Olympic champions Adam Peaty and Tom Dean, along with Paralympians Maisie Summers-Newton and Louise Fiddes, the Prince said: "I was so keen to come but, I have to say, after reading someone's interview about Covid I decided, because my wife was obviously having chemo, that I didn't want to risk bringing Covid home."

He added a word of thanks to Peaty for highlighting the ongoing situation with Covid, remarking: "So Adam very kindly reminded me that was still a thing. But we watched the whole thing. We were glued to it every day."

While promoting the advantages of swimming at the recently reopened community centre, William said: "Catherine and I both adore swimming.

"George loves scuba diving. He's 10 years old. We took him under thinking he would freak out. He absolutely loves it. It's just introducing him to the world of water.

"We want to replicate this across the country because swimming is such an important part of life. We're an island nation, we should all have access to learn how to swim."

Dean, fresh from his departure from BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing', shared that William and Kate were sympathetic about his exit and considered it "robbery".

"He (William) doesn't watch it but his wife's a big fan. Robbery was the word he used. Very, very kind of him but it does give me a lot more free time to do stuff like this."

Amongst well-wishers during a sunny