Prince William Sends Kate a Valentine's Gift from Falklands
Prince William may be deployed thousands of miles away in the Falkland Islands, but he found time to send his wife Catherine a card and flowers for Valentine's Day on Tuesday.
The former Kate Middleton, who married the royal in a lavish ceremony last year, revealed the gift on a visit to Liverpool in northwest England, where she met with recovering alcohol addicts and children being treated in hospital.
"She told us she had received a Valentine's card and flowers from William this morning," said Diane Squire, whose 12-year-olddaughter Megan was among the sick children who met the Duchess of Cambridge at Alder Hey hospital.
Megan gave her a card featuring a heart-shaped picture of the royal couple, to which the duchess, wearing a burgundy coat over a knee-length black dress, replied: "This is lovely, can I take it home?"
William, the 29-year-old second in line to the throne, was deployed earlier this month on a six-week mission to the Falklands, as part of his job as a search and rescue helicopter pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
His wife, 30, has used his absence to expand her royal role, carrying out her first solo public engagement last week when she visited a major exhibition of paintings by the late British artist Lucian Freud at the National Gallery.
Cheering crowds greeted the duchess as she arrived in Liverpool for the first stage of her visit, to an alcohol-free bar run by charity Action on Addiction, of which she is a patron.
Once inside, she helped to make a smoothie named "The Duchess" in her honor before being serenaded by the bar's resident choir, the Raucous Caucus Recovery Chorus.
Jaqson Johnston-Lynch, eight, was chosen to present her with a bunch of red roses, a card and a cupcake, saying: "I'm going to say 'Happy Valentine's Day, your Royal Highness. I'm sorry Prince William can't be here'."
Argentina, which claims the Falklands as its own, has condemned William's mission in the British-controlled archipelago as "a provocation" ahead of the 30th anniversary of the war the two countries fought over the islands.
Source: Agence France Presse
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