On Wednesday, Prince William and his wife Duchess Catherine attended their first royal engagement of 2020 in Bradford, Yorkshire. It was the couple's first public appearance since Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's bombshell announcement about stepping back as senior royals last week.

In Bradford, William and Catherine put on a spirited display as they spoke to a variety of different faith and community groups. Prince William talked about "challenges" as well as that it is better to deal with difficulties and to "move forward".

Prince William says it's better "[..] to move forward"

At the Khidmat Centre in Bradford, Prince William and Duchess Catherine attended a workshop run by Near Neighbors, an initiative to bring together ethnically and religiously diverse communities.

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"It's sometimes trying to get people to understand that it's okay to have these challenges," The Duke of Cambridge said. "We just need to deal with them and we need to move forward rather than just be stuck in paralysis."

Some people took the Duke's words to be reference to the ongoing controversy about Harry and Meghan wanting to be less involved with the royal family. It was  William's first public outing since Queen Elizabeth II had summoned William, Harry and Prince Charles for a meeting at Sandringham.

After the summit in Norfolk, the Queen released an official statement in which she supported her grandson's plans to become financially independent.