Olga Powell, the royal nanny who cared for Prince William and Prince Harry for more than 15 years, died on Tuesday.
(Photo: Reuters/Matt Dunham/Pool)Britain's Prince Harry at St James's Palace in London, July 4, 2011.
(Photo: Reuters/Roy Letkey)Prince William is seen making a royal salute as he watches the scene of Trooping the Colour from the balcony of Buckingham Palace with his brother Harry and mother Princess Diana in London in this June 15, 1985 file photograph. Britain's Prince William is to marry his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton next year, Buckingham Palace said on November 16, 2010.The caregiver was 82-years-old when she collapsed outside her home in Broxbourne earlier this week, the U.K.'s Mercury reported.
"The two princes have been informed and they are both very saddened by the news, as you can imagine," said a spokesperson for the Royal family. "They have nothing further to say at this juncture."
Following the Royal nanny's collapse, an ambulance was summoned to discover that Powell was in critical condition.
"We were alerted to a report of a woman who had collapsed along McKenzie Road in Broxbourne at 10:09 a.m.," said East of England Ambulance Service spokesman Gary Sanderson, according to Mercury. "A paramedic response car and an ambulance attended the scene."
Sanderson added that Powell underwent "rapid treatment and stabilization by paramedics" and was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Powell started looking after Prince William when he was just six months old and stayed after Prince Harry was born. She was with the young royals when their parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, got a divorce, as well as when Princess Diana died in 1997.
The nanny received an invitation to the Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, and continued to stay in touch with the family. Just last week Powell wrote Prince Harry expressing her concern for his safety after his military camp in Afghanistan was the target of a Taliban attack, according the Inquisitr.
Ahead of Prince William's April 2011 wedding, Powell divulged in an interview that Princes William and Harry "were just like any other children" and "like my grandsons."
"I have a very normal relationship with them," Powell told The Mirror U.K. "Their upbringing was very normal and their parents wanted them to have as ordinary a childhood as they could. If they saw a muddy puddle they wanted to jump in, and if there was something to climb, they wanted to climb it."
Prince William the Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry are not the only people grieving the loss of Powell. Many online readers are mourning the Royal nanny and posting their condolences.
"So sad to hear that Prince William/Harry's nanny of 15 years Olga Powell passed…" wrote The Nanny Doctor on Twitter.
Robert posted, "Ken Wharf- who knew the late Olga Powell well: 'She was a lovely, lovely lady and a great nanny to the princes."
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