Prince William's sweet reminder of home as he wears 'Papa' bracelet

The Prince of Wales sported a sweet reminder of home yesterday as he began his four-day royal visit to South Africa.

William was seen wearing a home-made friendship bracelet bearing the word 'Papa' - the name his children call him - in Cape Town.

His daughter, Princess Charlotte, nine, is understood to have made the item for him especially before the trip.

Charlotte is known to be a keen fan of arts and crafts - and of singer Taylor Swift who encourages fans to swap home-made friendship bracelets with names or words on.

The prince had his name spelt out in black and white with varying shades of blue.

It could be seen on his wrist under his £99 eco-friendly vegan shirt and jacket as he met with young environmentalists and told them: 'You're going to change the world.'

In September, William joked that Prince Louis could try to steal Charlotte's friendship bracelets.

The prince was meeting with pupils who took part in Welsh language festival Urdd Eisteddfod at Swiss Valley Community Primary School. 

Among them was ten-year-old winner Ruby Davies, who sweetly gifted William some friendship bracelets in a pink envelope to give to his children. 

The Prince was delighted by the gift - and even gave an insight into daily life between Charlotte and her cheeky younger brother Louis, six. 

'That's so sweet,' William said, after carefully unwrapping them. 'Did you build them at home? Did you put them together yourself?

'Thank you so much Ruby. They're going to love those, you'll see them out and about. I'll keep them away from Louis because he'll try and steal all his sister's bits.'

After meeting Swift at her London gig, the young royals were seen getting in on the summer trend, with George's 11th birthday portrait, taken by Kate, showing the prince - a certified Swiftie - dressed in a smart suit, with a woven bracelet on his left wrist. 

It was not the first time George has been seen wearing the bracelet, with the young royal again sporting it with a smart suit when he attended the Euro 2024 Final between Spain v England. 

King Charles, 75, was also spotted wearing what appears to be a friendship bracelet during some engagements, including for his visit to Guernsey in July with Queen Camilla. 

Made up of yellow and red thread, the band seemed to be similar to versions sported by Charlotte when she attended the Wimbledon final with her mother in July.

Dressed in a navy polka dot frock, Charlotte wore two of the threaded bracelets, one featuring various shades of pink and another boasting green, blue and pink fabric.

Friendship bracelets saw a resurgence in popularity over the summer due to the success of Swift's Eras tour.

However, the royal versions are not believed to be the same as those made by fans attending Swift's concerts - despite George and Charlotte going to her show at Wembley.

The bracelets swapped by Swifties tend to feature beads with lettering spelling our lyrics and song names, while Charlotte, George and Charles's accessories were made from plain coloured thread.

As for William, he is currently in Cape Town for his annual Earthshot Prize Awards, devised by the royal and his team after the prince expressed his frustration at the level of 'pessimism and despair' around the environment and climate crisis.

He decided to highlight and expand positive and innovative solutions to the problem: Earthshot, 'the most ambitious environmental prize in history'.

This year's event is said to 'go above and beyond' anything he has done before.

Five winners will each be awarded £1million at an awards ceremony tomorrow to help scale up their ideas to solve environmental issues.

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Entrants range from a company which has created sustainable refrigeration to one that take harmful CO2 out of the oceans.

Africa is a particularly emotive location for William, who found 'healing' on the continent following the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. He also proposed to his wife in Kenya.

But Africa is also the continent that, while contributing least to global warming and having the lowest global emissions, is more adversely affected by the impact of climate change than any other.

During an off-the-cuff speech at the event at the Rooftop on Bree, William, 42, told the 120 youngsters from across Africa and South East Asia: 'The Earthshot Prize believes in you and the reason we set the prize up is for moments like this'.

He had been speaking with them about their ideas to tackle climate issues, which included a business making handbags out of old tyres.

William added: 'All of you in this room are future change makes, you're the leaders, you're the people going to make the difference going forwards.'

'It's your platform, use it as you need to, take it away, play with it, turn it into something different.

'Because we believe in you and what you're going to do is change the world, I really believe that.

'This is the generation that are going to do that. And your solutions and your impact are so important and so needed right now.

This is not noble, this is business and what you're doing is creating solutions and a better life for all of us. Keep it going, keep the energy up.' 

The young people are participating in the inaugural Earthshot Prize Climate Leaders Youth Programme.

Today William will undertake a busy day of engagements including visiting local landmarks to learn more about environmental projects in the region and meeting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

William's audience with the President has been described as a 'follow-up' to the state visit made to the UK by Mr Ramaphosa in 2022.

Later the prince will give a major speech on nature, the environment and his support for wildlife rangers at the start of a two-day summit for United for Wildlife, his umbrella organisation combating the illegal trafficking of animals.

The future king began his four-day visit to Cape Town yesterday and during the coming days will take part in a series of events shining a light on young African climate activists and promoting his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony.

The prince and the president will sit down for talks later and be joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in the country for a meeting with his South African counterpart Ronald Lamola.

Antony Phillipson, Britain's high commissioner to South Africa, said of the royal visit: 'I would just highlight that we are actually delighted to have the Prince of Wales here this week for Earthshot week, and we will be taking the opportunity of doing some bilateral events with him, and for him.'

He added: 'We very much see this as a follow-up to the state visit ... which we continue to see here as a very historic moment between the UK and South Africa.'

William will also attend Earthshot+, a day of conversations with world-leading experts aimed at enhancing the impact of the Earthshot Prize, with the event featuring a young environmentalist, an Earthshot trustee and Mr Lammy, among others.