Duchess of Cambridge shows longer locks as she gives a glimpse into one of the Queen's homes
Watch: Kate praises nurse for going âextra mileâ by playing Bon Jovi to dying patient
The Duchess of Cambridge has shown her growing lockdown hairstyle as she is prevented from getting her hair cut just like the rest of England.
Kate, 39, is in Norfolk with her family during the third lockdown, and has been taking on video engagements again.
In the latest call, with nurses from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW), her dark hair was noticeably longer and straighter than her usual bouncy curls.
Itâs also been revealed she was in her grandmother-in-lawâs home, as she made the call from Sandringham, the Queenâs Norfolk home.
The royal residence is where the Queen has spent Christmas for the last 30 years, though she and her husband Prince Philip stayed in Windsor Castle in 2020.
The duchess had her own family portraits behind her as she borrowed a room in Sandringham, a short drive away from Anmer Hall, where she and William are homeschooling their three children.
Two houseplants added a pop of greenery and life behind the duchess, who was sat on a cream sofa with embroidered cushions.
The picture on the side looked to be one of the duchess with her youngest son, Prince Louis, at her Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2019.
Kate opted for a smart blazer and white shirt for the call, as well as pearl earrings.
The duchess was catching up with five nurses, hearing their stories of working during the pandemic, and thanking them for going the extra mile.
Vasu Lingappa told Kate about playing a Bon Jovi song for a patient whose wife could not be with him during his final moments.
Read more: Countess of Wessex 'so happy' as her father gets coronavirus vaccine
Lingappa said: âA lot of people are dying and we normally have families surrounding them during the last hour, but weâre not able to do that.
âAnd if I can give you a little example, we had a gentleman and unfortunately he was dying, so we spoke to his wife and she said, âI canât come to see (him) but can you make sure you sing Bon Jovi and hold his hand?â
âAnd I said, âIf I sing Bon Jovi in my accent. It wonât be appropriateâ. So I took my phone out and played a YouTube video of Bon Jovi and I held his hand.â
He went on to say: âItâs been tough, but like I said earlier, Iâm surrounded by some amazing people with lots of skills and inspirational stories.
âWe are nurses (some) working in critical care for 30 years, 35 years, 40 years â so there is nothing they havenât seen, but this is unprecedented.â
During the call, held on Wednesday 20 January, Kate said: âYou hear time and time again about the amazing things nurses up and down the country are doing â going that extra mile.
âItâs the things that, you know, itâs not part of the training and the things that youâre taught, but the things that come from your heart.
âI think thatâs what matters so much now, these acts of kindness to the patients youâre looking after, that are in your care, that family members arenât able to be there, but you are going that extra mile and being there.â
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Kate praised another nurse who told the duchess she had been trying to tell people about the importance of the coronavirus vaccine.
Kate said it was âfantasticâ that she wanted to âreassure the publicâ.
A nurse from UHCW administered the first coronavirus vaccine to grandmother Margaret Keenan in December at University Hospital in Coventry.
Since then more than 440,000 vaccines have been delivered across the Midlands.
Kate also checked in with the nurses, asking: âHow are everyoneâs spirits? I know weâre not through this yet, but how is everyone doing?â
Professor Nina Morgan, chief nursing officer at UCHW, replied: âSome of our nurses on our frontline wards find the shifts incredibly difficult because of the volume of people who have been admitted to our hospital who have Covid.
âWhen Iâm walking round the ward and speaking to nurses, there are some who are absolutely visibly distressed and upset by what theyâre seeing and what theyâre experiencing.â
Prince William, 38, and Kate are thought to have travelled up to Norfolk with their children before London, where they had been living, was placed into additional restrictions.
They were spotted in Sandringham around Christmas time, when they were seen at a lights trail event on the Queenâs estate.
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Their time slot was close to the Earl and Countess of Wessexâs, who were there with their children, and they were seen walking with them, breaking the rule of six which was in place.
At the time, a source at Sandringham said: âThe two families were given separate consecutive slots to visit the trail just before it opened to the general public. They arrived and departed in their own family groups.
âAs anyone with young children will know, there were moments on the 90-minute walk where it was difficult to keep the two family groups apart, particularly at bottlenecks on the trail.â
William and Kate spent the first lockdown in Norfolk too, and opened up about their experiences of homeschooling, with William sounding a little sarcastic as he called it âfunâ.
Kate said their oldest son George, seven, was jealous of his sister Charlotteâs work.
The family had stayed in London during the November lockdown, when schools remained open. George and Charlotte, who is five, go to Thomasâs in Battersea, while two-year-old Louis is not yet at school.
Watch: Prince William and Kate speak to frontline workers