Prince William opened up in rare interview ahead of his Earthshot Prize Awards in Cape Town tonight saying he hopes his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are proud. He also gave an update on wife Kate who has just finished chemotherapy treatment for cancer

Prince William has told of his hope that his three children are ‘proud’ of his planet saving Earthshot Prize awards as he prepares to award million pound prizes to the winners in Cape Town tonight.

The Prince of Wales also paid a heartfelt tribute to his wife Kate, who has just finished eight months of chemotherapy treatment for cancer, saying: “She’s been amazing this whole year”. The future king also told of his belief that the awards encompass optimism as the planet enters a critical phase. William met the 15 finalists of his global environmental awards this morning at the glorious Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens at the foot of the iconic Table Mountain, telling them “we are here for you”.

He heralded their planet saving solutions which will be broadcast to an audience of millions at a glittering ceremony tonight in Cape Town, live for the first time on YouTube, and revealed he had brought his children “along that journey” of being more aware of our role in saving the planet.

In an interview with British media, William spoke of his love for Africa and thanked South Africans for their “exuberance and energy” in hosting the fourth annual awards. William spoke of his desire to focus on the next generation – especially Gen-Z – and said he is working on the basics of environmentalism with his children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine and Prince Louis, five.

He said: “You know, every family tries to do what they can to sort of help with the environment. We go through all the basics of recycling and making sure we minimise water use and turning off lights when we leave the house and stuff like that, and making sure, which is sensible in what we do around the environment. And I think every family has these conversations. You just try to do what you can.”

Speaking about the scale of Earthshot, which is handing out five £1million prizes over a decade for planet saving solutions, he said: “The Earthshot Prize has got to be a bit more global than that. We are trying to do big scale ambition and big scale business to tackle some of the solutions.