Prince William says Princess Diana would be ‘disappointed’ at level of homelessness in Red Nose Day video

Homelessness has always been a subject close to Prince William’s heart as his late mother, Princess Diana was renowned for her work in helping tackle it. In 2005 Prince William became patron for Centrepoint, and on the organisation’s website, he recalls the day he first visited it with his mother. “That example of selfless service that Centrepoint represents has stayed with me, and that is why it was the first charity that I wanted to be associated with.”

In the video recorded for this year’s Red Nose Day Charity appeal, which will be shown on BBC One on March 17, Prince William spoke about how he learnt about homelessness through his mother. “My mother introduced me to the cause of homelessness from quite a young age, and I’m really glad she did.”

Prince William then went on to say that “I think she would be disappointed that we are still no further on, in terms of tackling homelessness and preventing it, than when she was interested and involved in it.”

In February of this year, Prince William visited The Passage in London to officially open new residential buildings for the homeless charity, he has been a patron of it since 2019. Princess Diana first brought Prince William and Prince Harry to the charity when they were children and he has been back there over the years.

When he visited The Passage in 2016, he was presented a photograph of himself, Prince Harry and Princess Diana when they visited the organisation in 1994. According to Princess Diana’s former personal chef, she used to reportedly sneak out of Kensington Palace to leave coats in bins for homeless people. 

According to the Daily Express, “Darren McGrady, who worked with the late Princess of Wales for a number of years, recalled her humanitarian work in the documentary ‘Royal Servants.’ uploaded to YouTube in 20111.

He said:”We were put in a wonderful position where we can go out and spread the word about Princess Diana about the good that she did, the good stories that she did. “You know, how she did go out in the darkness of night putting things into rubbish bins for the homeless to find, putting coats and things out there.”

Ahead of Red Nose Day, Prince William visited Groundswell, a homelessness organisation funded by Comic Relief and spoke to Nawshin and Miles who are supported by the charity. “Coming to Groundswell and being supported to share my story has really helped me,” Nawshin said. “It is powerful for people to actually listen.”

It has been reported that Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to launch a new initiative to target homelessness  through the Royal Foundation (possibly after the coronation). In November of last year The Royal Foundation posted an advert for someone to lead the Head of Homelessness Programme.

The ad read: “The Royal Foundation is seeking an exceptional Head of Programme to lead the implementation of a major new flagship initiative on homelessness, driving a bold and ambitious programme set to launch in spring 2023.” Those who were interested in applying would have had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.