Princess Diana, Princess of Wales with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry. Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
Prince William explained how his late mother, Princess Diana, inspired his latest charitable initiative.
“I have taken some inspiration and guidance from what my mother did, particularly with homelessness,” William, 42, said in the trailer for his upcoming ITV documentary, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness.
The 30-second clip, released on Sunday, October 13, showed William wearing an apron as he visited a homeless shelter. In a voiceover, the Prince of Wales explained his goal to address the homelessness issue in the U.K. (A release date for the documentary has not yet been confirmed.)
“I’ve slowly tried to work out, ‘What can I bring to the role and the platform that I have?’” William said in the trailer.
William launched the Homewards project in 2023 with The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales. Homewards aims to make homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated” with a five-year locally led program.
Before her death, Diana made homelessness a forefront of her charitable initiatives by acting as a patron for Centrepoint, a charity for homeless youth in the U.K. (Diana died at age 36 in an August 1997 car accident.)
Prince William JONATHAN BRADY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
As children, William and Prince Harry would often accompany their mother to homelessness-focused charities. Both princes have since carried on their mother’s legacy when it comes to charitable initiatives.
While William has focused on eradicating homelessness in the U.K., his younger brother has teamed up with The HALO Trust and literally followed in Diana’s footsteps during a trip to Angola in 2019.
Diana famously traveled to the country in 1997 and walked through a minefield. Harry did the same when he took his own trip decades later. Landmines in Angola are a worsening problem, one that Harry and The HALO Trust are aiming to fix.
“Much has changed in my life and the world since 2019 when I first visited [Angola]. In those five years, I’ve become a father for the second time,” he said in a speech late last month, referring to 3-year-old daughter Lilibet. (He and wife Meghan Markle also share 5-year-old son Archie.)
“While you don’t need children to have a stake in the future of our planet, I do know that my mother would have been horrified that anyone’s children or grandchildren would live in a world still infested with mines,” Harry continued, noting that his walk looked different from the steps Diana took. (“The Diana Tree” now marks the spot where the late royal family member was photographed in the ‘90s.)
“As you know, The HALO Trust work in Angola meant a great deal to my mother carrying on her legacy is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously and I think we all know how much she’d want us to finish this particular job,” Harry added during his speech. “We’re all here because we’re a band of True Believers fighting for a mine-free world.”
