Prince William became the prince of hugs on Tuesday when he met Caribbean elders to mark Black History Month.
As he gave one woman a cuddle for longer than she expected, he joked: “I draw the line at kissing!”
The Prince of Wales also posed for a group photograph, he drew laughs when he joked: “Who is pinching my bottom?”
William and Catherine were at the Grange Pavilion community centre in Cardiff to meet members of Windrush Cymru Elders and other groups to hear about the contribution the generation has had on the community.
As William chatted to Roma Taylor, 79, the founder of Windrush Cymru Elders, she became the first of a long line of women demand a hug from the prince, 41.
“It was long one!” she laughed afterwards.
Taylor, a former member of Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, turned out to have form when it comes to physical displays of affection towards the royal family. She said that when King Charles visited the Senedd last year, she held his hand for so long that a member of his security team eventually had to tell her that she had to let him go.
The couple received a boisterous welcome from their host, Professor Uzo Iwobi, founder of the African Community Centre Wales and Race Council Cymru, and their invited guests who included members from Windrush Cymru Elders and Black History Cymru 365.
The couple showed off their table tennis skills when they joined members of the Grange Pavilion Youth Forum for a game of table tennis.
William had promised Prof Iwobi he would travel to Cardiff and meet the elders, after she insisted the prince visit when he made her a CBE earlier this year, for services to race equality and championing diversity and cohesion.
Prof Iwobi, who received a hug from William for her efforts organising the day, said: “Today he saw me and said: ‘I promised you, and I keep my word.’ It was just so heart-meltingly beautiful for our elders to hold the hand of the future King.”
Karen Lucock, 65, received a hug from William and recounting it later she laughed and said: “I said, ‘Please can I have a hug?’ He said, ‘Yes you can.’ I was surprised because he hugged me for quite a while. I am in a bit of shock!”
Her friend Yvonne Howard-Bunt did not want to miss out and when she asked: “Can I have one of what she has just had?” And the prince agreed.
The prince and princess quizzed the Windrush group about their experiences and Kate heard about the discrimination one woman faced from the parents of her playmates.
Val Radway, 69, who came to Newport, Wales, from Jamaica as an 11-year-old schoolgirl to join her parents described how she arrived in winter on a Thursday and started school the following Monday.
Kate asked about the changes she had seen over the decades and the 69-year-old said: “I told her the story of how, when I was playing with the other kids, because I was black their mothers would come out and call them inside.
“That’s how it was then but now the grandchildren of the Windrush generation and the grandchildren of white families can play together.”
