The Prince of Wales hugged his was way round a room of Windrush veterans as he celebrated the Caribbeans who helped rebuild postwar Britain – but drew the line at kissing.
William was joined by wife Kate for his visit to Cardiff to meet the elderly group and Windrush descendants, after he promised a community leader he would make the trip which marked the start of Black History Month.
The future King was hugged numerous times at the Grange Pavilion community centre by some of the guests and after the final embrace, he quipped: “No kissing, I draw the line at kissing.”
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.
Later, when the guests posed for a group photograph, William laughed with Kate as they moved to a back row and ushered the Windrush veterans forward, but the room erupted when William joked: “Who’s pinching my bottom?”
And 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.”
