LONDON: Britain’s Prince William will give up his job as an air ambulance pilot and spend more time in London with his family to concentrate on his royal duties, Kensington Palace said in a statement on Friday.
William and his wife Kate and their two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, have been based in a house on his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk in eastern England.
George, three, will start pre-school in London this year and one-year-old Charlotte will go to a nursery, the statement said.
The 34-year-old prince is second in line to the British throne after his father Charles.
William and Kate “are keen to continue to increase their official work on behalf of the queen and for the charities and causes they support, which will require greater time spent in London”, it said.
But Kensington Palace said Anmer Hall in Norfolk would “continue to be their home”.
William started his job as an air ambulance pilot at East Anglia Air Ambulance in July 2015, commuting there from Sandringham after spending three years as a military search and rescue helicopter pilot.
“It has been a huge privilege,” he said.
He was reportedly paid an annual salary of £40,000 (46,000 euros, $49,000), but donated it in full to charity.
He is thought to be the first royal directly in line to inherit the throne to have signed a job contract with a civilian employer.
British tabloids dubbed him “work-shy” last year after the publication of official photographs of him and his family skiing, raising concern about his perceived reluctance for a life in the public eye.
The young royals remain hugely popular in Britain.
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