The Queen's socially distanced reunion with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Queen Elizabeth II has reunited with Prince William, Kate Middleton and three of her great-grandchildren.

Queen Elizabeth has hosted a socially distant get-together with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The 94-year-old royal reunited with her grandson, Prince William, his wife, Duchess Catherine, and their three children - Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two.

A source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "Like every family, they've been desperate to get back together and over the moon it was possible this weekend. They've all been up there for a few days and although there are very strict procedures with social distancing, they've been able to find ways of seeing each other outside. It's obviously been a difficult year for the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh seeing the country dealing with the pandemic, so they were all keen to go there to show their support."

Meanwhile, the 38-year-old royal previously confessed he thinks the coronavirus lockdown created an opportunity to "revalue things".

He explained: "This period of time has allowed us to all revalue things. The thing about lockdown is that it has been a little bit of an awakening that we maybe take our lives a bit for granted sometimes and there's a lot of things out there that can wobble all of us at any time ... I think particularly now, as a parent, it starts to make you look a bit more to the future at what kind of world we are going to hand over to the next generation. There's been a lot of time to think - and you can also have too much time to think, and that's also what worries me."

And Prince William kept himself occupied during the lockdown with home-schooling and trying to keep his kids entertained.

He explained: "I found it pretty testing, trying to keep the children engaged and interested in some sort of work. It's been an interesting few months. I've learned my patience is a lot shorter than I thought it was! That's probably the biggest eye-opener for me, and my wife has super patience."