Catherine, Princess of Wales, Sends Welsh-Language Message to Radio 2 Broadcaster
Catherine, Princess of Wales, recorded a message entirely in Welsh for Welsh broadcaster Owain Wyn Evans, and it aired on BBC Radio 2. The message ran during The Sara Cox Breakfast Show, the morning programme on the BBC's music station. Town & Country reported the message on November 13.
Welsh is Owain Wyn Evans's first language. He had recently finished a long fundraising ride. The 4 Nations Cycle Challenge covered nearly 400 miles, about 640 kilometres, across Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales. The money went to BBC Children in Need, the broadcaster's yearly charity appeal. The five-day ride started in Glasgow and was set to finish in Cardiff. Radio 2 has described it as the longest fundraising challenge in the station's history.
After he heard the message, Evans praised the princess's language skills. "It's perfect! She's doing great!" he said.
Wales has two official languages, English and Welsh. Welsh is older than English in Britain, and it is spoken across the country alongside English. Its use has grown in recent decades, with schools, television and radio all offering Welsh-language programming.
The message was not the couple's first Welsh-language moment. In March, the princess and her husband, Prince William, recorded a joint video for St. David's Day, Wales's national day, taking turns speaking Welsh. That video was the princess's first public remarks in the language. Prince William gave his first speech in Welsh in 2025.
The language has a longer history in the family. Before his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, a formal ceremony that installs a royal in the title, Charles spent a term studying Welsh at Aberystwyth University. At his investiture at Caernarfon Castle in July 1969, he delivered a large part of his speech in Welsh.
For listeners in the United States, the moment is a small one. It shows a senior royal using a language most Americans have never heard spoken in person. For Evans, it was a message from a princess that he could understand every word of, in his own first language.
