A schoolboy has shared his excitement after Prince William made a surprise appearance at his school.
The young man named Freddie Hadley had sent the Prince of Wales a letter last year inviting him to his school in the West Midlands to see their mental health initiatives.
The 12-year-old, posted his letter on X on World Mental Health Day last October to show the future King the work that he and his friends were doing to raise awareness about men's mental health.
Shockingly William replied, writing: "Good afternoon Freddie, I’m so sorry Catherine and I can’t be with you and the rest of the students at St Michael’s today. Tackling mental health challenges and stigmas head-on is so important, please keep up this important work. W."
Freddie Hadley couldn't believe it when the Prince showed up at his school
GB News
Freddie was shocked by William's reply but even more shocked when the Prince of Wales surprised him at his school today.
Speaking to GB News Freddie said: "The Matrix Project at my school is like a group of males where we want to when we want to tackle these stigmas around mental health and make males feel more freely, to open up about their emotions.
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"I wrote a letter to Prince William inviting him to come to one of our events and see what we do inside of our school and possibly get a visit, which obviously happened today.
"He responded on Twitter. So that was such an amazing thing to happen I never expected it, not to this extent. It's like it's been such an amazing day."
He added: "I was not expecting Prince William to come at all today."
The young man explained: "I cannot wrap my head around this because as I said I didn't get told, which was a good thing to not get told because it wouldn't be such a big surprise. But when I saw him, I was like, gosh, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for sure."
Prince William kept his appearance as a surprise from Freddie
GB News
Earlier today, the Prince and Princess of Wales's social media accounts posted a message with a waving hand emoji, letting the school know he was on his way.
William told him: "I'm here now", as he met the enterprising youngster.
Prince William is in the West Midlands today to learn about initiatives across the region that are supporting people's mental health and well-being.
St Michael’s Church of England High School employs a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, and in May 2022 achieved a gold standard award by the Carnegie Centre of Excellent for Mental Health in Schools.
Prince William joined in with some jokes
GB News
Whilst he visited the school he spent some time with the children and even joined in with some "dad jokes" to break the ice. William said: "I'm trying to channel Jack Whitehall, because most of his jokes are pretty dad-like.
"What I'll do is I'm going to say a joke that's Charlotte's favourite joke at the moment, she keeps telling me, I'll do that instead. You're going to have to interact with me, it's not a joke I can tell straight away.
Proceeding to tell the joke, William said: "Knock knock." The boys replied: "Who's there?"
The prince then said: "Interrupting cow." Before the boys had a chance to reply "Interrupting cow who?", William loudly went "Moo!"