Prince William Had to Turn Off a David Attenborough Documentary Because Prince George Got So Upset

Prince William spoke about watching a David Attenborough documentary with son Prince George, revealing, "George and I had to turn it off."

kings lynn, england december 25 prince george of cambridge attends the christmas day church service at church of st mary magdalene on the sandringham estate on december 25, 2019 in kings lynn, united kingdom photo by mark cuthbertuk press via getty images
(Image credit: Mark Cuthbert)

The Cambridge kids might be enormous fans of David Attenborough, but the naturalist's latest BBC documentary, Extinction: The Facts, proved just too upsetting for Prince George. Speaking at the launch of his new environmental initiative, the Earthshot Prize, Prince William spoke about watching the documentary with George—and, ultimately, turning it off.

"Having watched so many David Attenborough documentaries recently with my children, they absolutely love them, the most recent one—the extinction one—actually George and I had to turn it off, we got so sad about it halfway through," William said, as Sky News reports. "He said to me, 'You know, I don't want to watch this anymore.'"

"[George asked]'Why has it come to this?' And you know, he's seven years old and he's asking me these questions already. He really feels it, and I think every seven year old out there can relate to that," the Duke of Cambridge continued. "I really feel from an emotional point of view as well, I think every parent, everyone wants to do the best for their children, and I think we have to have a decade of change, a decade of repairing the planet so that we can hand it on to the next generation and future generations and sustain the prosperity for their lives too."

Launched Thursday, William's £50 million (about $65 million) Earthshot Prize initiative will see five prizes of £1 million each awarded every year for the next decade, to people and entities enacting positive environmental change. The prize was launched with the goal of turning "the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action."

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Emily Dixon
Morning Editor

Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.