The Prince of Wales left a group of schoolchildren in hysterics after surprising them with a video call during their lunchbreak.
In a video posted on TikTok by 18-year-old Hannah Wickison, Prince William, 40, appeared on a pupil’s phone screen while sitting with one of their mothers.
The video shows the children, from Colchester in Essex, laughing with the father-of-three as he jokes with them while they sit starstruck around the table.
William was calling from his visit to Ipswich Hospital, which itself was a surprise for staff.
In the beginning of the video, Prince William jokes about one of the pupils at the table with red hair, comparing him to Ed Sheeran.
He says: ‘Who’s the guy, to the corner?’ and points to the pupil as the others laugh and the camera focuses on the bashful boy, who giggles and bows his head.
As the pupils laugh in bewilderment, Prince William is seen laughing at his own joke.
Then he asks: ‘Are you guys doing any work?’ to which the chorus of pupils reply: ‘No’.
The pupil’s mother chimes in and tells the children: ‘You should be’, before they reply to tell her they’re on their lunch break.
Seeing an opportunity to make another joke to his eager audience, William tells one young boy: ‘Your mother’s feeding me her cakes.’
He then holds up a cupcake in the palm of his hand to the camera, before joking: ‘They’re not very good.’
Prince William, 40, joked with children on Facetime in a video which has appeared on TikTok, which appears to show the Prince of Wales during his visit to Ipswich Hospital
The children then burst into more fits of laughter as he adds: ‘I’ve told her she wouldn’t win Bake Off.’
After the Prince cheekily laughs while looking at the mother, she can be heard saying: ‘Right, we’re going to go.’
Following the phone call and after they had recovered from the shock Hannah, who filmed the call, recalled her surprise at chatting to the heir to the throne.
She said: ‘A friend’s mum called him whilst he was visiting her at work and he was on the other end of the line.
‘We were all just so shocked and didn’t expect it, completely speechless.’
She added: ‘It was just really unexpected, the things he was saying – you just don’t really think they’ll have a joke with you I guess.’
As viewers of the TikTok video were left baffled by the Prince’s surprise appearance, they left comments expressing their shock.
One person wrote: ‘Did he call your friend Ed Sheeran? LOL.’
Another said: ‘Bro just casually facetiming the future king.’
As many joked the Prince of Wales was doing a ‘side mission’ with his call, others suggested they would one day see the scene acted out in ‘Season 10 of The Crown’.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust posted a tweet last week to confirm Prince William had paid them a visit, where he ‘thanked staff and found out more about our local NHS’.
Photos from the visit showed William dressed in the same outfit he is wearing in the Facetime video while he chats to staff wearing pink scrubs.
William’s funny appearance comes after a more muted few weeks for the royals as they return to business as usual following the fallout from Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare.
Getting back to their normal duties, the Prince and Princess of Wales last week visited Cornwall on a joint engagement where they attended the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth to learn about the area’s heritage. The couple also paid a visit to a community centre.
During their visit to the museum’s workshop, they helped those working on the refurbishment of the Kiwi, a 14-foot sailing dinghy which was presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as a wedding present from the Royal New Zealand Navy.
Kate and William heard from a group of young people who are taking part in the ‘Young and Talented Cornwall’ scheme which provides financial support to help young people from across Cornwall fulfill their potential, regardless of their financial means or background.
In total, the fund has given out almost £350,000 to some 275 individuals in the past ten years – supporting future Olympic medal winners, international rugby players, and musicians now playing in major orchestras, among others.