Prince William has paid a heartfelt tribute to Queen Elizabeth II after he taking Hollywood star Eugene Levy around her Berkshire home.
William described how he misses his grandmother in a clip from a forthcoming episode of Levy’s travel series, as they stand in the King’s drawing room in the late Queen’s beloved Windsor Castle.
During the Second World War the castle was home to the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret, and she spent much of the pandemic within the safety of its walls, protected in “HMS Bubble”, the reported nickname for her reduced staff.
In a preview of the upcoming episode from the Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy, titled Living The Royal Life In The UK, William tells Levy: “I do actually, yeah I do miss my grandmother, and my grandfather.
“Yeah, it’s been quite a bit of change, so you do sort of, you think about them not being here any more and particularly being in Windsor, for me Windsor is her.
“So, she loved it here, she spent most of her time here.”
The future king told the Schitt’s Creek star, 78: “Showing you around today is very much a case of trying to make sure I’m doing it in the way she’d want you to see it.”
The late Queen would regularly spend most weekends at Windsor Castle and during the latter years of her life her stays became longer as her 70-year reign neared its end.
During the war, Elizabeth and sister Margaret cultivated tomatoes, sweetcorn and dwarf bean on plots on the castle’s east terrace garden, when it was turned over to growing produce for the war effort.
Her husband Philip was ranger of Windsor Great Park for nearly 70 years and played an active role in the stewardship of the grounds, redesigning the terrace’s flowerbeds in 1971 and commissioning a new bronze lotus fountain based on his own design for the centre of garden.
The 20th century history of the castle is dominated by the major fire that started on November 20 1992 in the private chapel with the picture of the Queen in a headscarf talking to senior fire officers an enduring image of the incident.
The next five years were spent restoring Windsor Castle to its former glory. It resulted in the greatest historic building project to have been undertaken in the UK in the 20th century, reviving many traditional crafts.
The restoration was completed six months ahead of schedule on November 20 1997 at a cost of £37 million, £3 million below budget, with 70 per cent of the necessary revenue raised from opening Buckingham Palace’s State Rooms to visitors in August and September.
The travel series follows the Schitt’s Creek co-creator as he pushes himself out of his comfort zone and ticks off his travel bucket list.
The upcoming season will see Levy joined by the likes of Grammy Award-winner Michael Buble, Levy’s daughter Sarah Levy, K-Pop boy band Nowz, and former India cricketer Rahul Dravid.
New episodes of The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy premiere weekly until the finale on October 31 2025.
The special episode with the Prince of Wales will air on October 3.
