Prince William said he tells his children about homelessness on the school run – like Princess Diana did when he was young.
Speaking in a new ITV documentary, The Prince of Wales said that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have asked him why people are sleeping rough while being taken to school.
He said: “The first few times I thought ‘do I bring this up or should I wait to see if they notice?’
“Sure enough, they did. They were sort of in silence when I said what was going on.”
The prince also told ITV that Diana would talk to them about homelessness when he and Prince Harry were children.
“When you are that small you are just curious and trying to work out what’s going on,” he said.
“You ask the question ‘why are they sitting there?’ My mother would talk to us a bit about why they were there and it definitely made a really big impact.”
Filmed over the last year, the documentary follows William and his Homewards initiative, which aims to eradicate homelessness and make it “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
The royal launched the five-year scheme in June 2023, with six locations – Newport, Lambeth, Aberdeen, Belfast, Sheffield, and Dorset’s Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch – chosen for the initiative.
William also said in the documentary: “There has to be a better way than just accepting that homelessness is there and we just live with it. I don’t believe that. I won’t accept that.”
In another clip from the documentary, the prince also defended his work trying to tackle homelessness despite criticism for being a member of the Royal Family.
Anti-monarchy campaigners Republic previously suggested his involvement in the issue was at odds with his privileged position and the number of properties that he has access to as a royal.
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William said he comes “with no other agenda than desperately trying to help people who are in need”, and added he sees the initiative as “part of my role”.
Prince William: We Can End Homelessness airs on 30 and 31 October at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX, STV and STV Player.