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The Queen's great nephew opens up about overcoming huge challenge in rare video

Arthur Chatto discussed one of his biggest achievements

arthur chatto
Bridie Wilkins
Senior Health & Fitness Writer
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The Queen's great nephew (Princess Margaret's grandson) Arthur Chatto took on a huge challenge in 2020: rowing 2,000 miles around the UK for charity.

Arthur and his teammates – Charles Bromhead, Harry Lidgley and Oliver Dawe-Lane – were at sea for 42 days, and raised over £21,500 for the British Red Cross and Just One Ocean. They were required to self-isolate together in order to complete the GB Row Challenge since it took place during the pandemic, and things only got harder once they actually took to the water.

SEE: Princess Margaret's grandson lands personal trainer job

WATCH: The Queen's great nephew Arthur Chatto opens up about rowing challenge

In a Q&A video shared on the personal training company that Arthur works for, Bound Fitness, he explained what the "biggest challenge" was.

"The biggest challenge was the complexity of the route," he said. "You’ve got the Irish sea, you’ve got Scotland, you’ve got the north sea, and so you can never settle into a rhythm because everywhere you go its changing and its different."

One fan also asked him about training for the challenge, and if you thought participation was the hard part, the preparation and lead-up to the event sounded seriously intense.

MORE: Royals exercising: photos of Kate Middleton, Princess Beatrice, Meghan Markle and more as you've never seen them before

arthur chatto row© Photo: Rex

Arthur and his teammates celebrated after finishing the Team GB Row Challenge

"It was pretty mental," Arthur added. "It was about an hour and a half rowing a day with a strength session, so an hour of squats or some back, and then we'd also throw in a two-hour session twice a week, as well as different cross fit style metabolic circuits. We'd call them endurance circuits and they'd be about two hours long, so it was just nice and varied."

Upon finishing the challenge, Arthur shared the news on Instagram and said: "We are thrilled to announce we finished the GB Row under tower bridge in 42 days 8 hrs 23 mins and 16 seconds and became the Youngest team ever to row around Great Britain. It was an amazing moment and made it all worth it."

As for Arthur's career as a personal trainer, one follower asked him why he decided to become one, to which Arthur replied: "Because of the physical and mental benefits that exercise has had on me, so I wanted to share this with others."

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