When exactly William was infected is unclear. The Sun newspaper, which broke the story, said that he took a seven-day break from calls and video messages from April 9 to April 16.
The paper added that William, also styled the Duke of Cambridge, recently told an “observer” at a function that he did not go public with his diagnosis because “there were important things going on and I didn’t want to worry anyone.”
The Press Association reported that Kensington Palace, William’s residence and office, did not comment on the matter when contacted on Sunday, but also did not deny the report. CNN has also contacted Kensington Palace for comment but has not yet heard back.
Charles urged the world to listen to scientists and act to protect the environment in order to avoid more pandemics in the future.
“We should have been treating the planet as if it was a patient long ago. So no self-respecting doctor would ever have let the situation, if the planet is a patient, reach this stage before making an intervention,” he said.
“The more we erode the natural world, the more we destroy what’s called biodiversity — which is the immense diversity of life, plant life, tree life, everything else, marine life — the more we expose ourselves to this kind of danger. We’ve had these other disasters with SARS and Ebola and goodness knows what else, all of these things are related to the loss of biodiversity.”