Prince William has a deeply meaningful plan to honour what would've been his mother Princess Diana's 64th birthday today.
Prince William intends to travel to Sheffield to mark the second anniversary of his Homewards initiative, which aims to make homelessness 'rare, brief and unrepeated.' The initiative was largely inspired by the advocacy of his late mother.
Prince William launched the Homewards initiative in 2023 as part of a five-year plan to tackle homelessness. Per the Royal Foundation, 'Homewards will support local partners to form locally led coalitions of committed individuals, organisations, and businesses who will work together to create and deliver a tailored plan to prevent homelessness in their areas – based on local needs and local expertise.'
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Upon the launch of the initiative, Prince William featured in an ITV documentary, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, in which he commented on how much of an inspiration Princess Diana had been in his establishing the scheme.
'My mother took me to The Passage [a homeless shelter]. She took Harry and I both there. I must have been about 11, I think, probably, at the time. Maybe 10. I’d never been to anything like that before. And I was a bit anxious as to what to expect,' Prince William said in the documentary, per the BBC. 'My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed, and having a laugh and joking with everyone. I remember at the time, kind of thinking, well, if everyone’s not got a home, they’re all going to be really sad.'
Prince William's interview in the 2024 ITV documentary also marked his first time in six years publicly referencing his brother Prince Harry.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
