Prince William revealed he is educating his children about homelessness while taking them to and from school.
The prince, 42, is following in his mother, Princess Diana’s footsteps by making sure his children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, understand what homelessness means.
In his upcoming documentary Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, the future King said: “When you are that small you are just curious and trying to work out what’s going on. 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.”
When asked about when he will talk to his children about homelessness, the prince said: “I am probably already doing it on the school run. 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.” I do think it is really important that you start these conversations when the children are small so they understand the world around them, rather than just living in their own worlds.”
The documentary will focus on William’s Homewards initiative, a campaign to end homelessness in the UK.
During the past year, the Homewards teams in six UK locations have been building collaborations between the public, private and third sectors.
William said the impact his mother had on him has helped inspire the project.
The prince said: “My mother introduced me to homelessness a long time ago and it is something that has a deep resonation with me – not just because of the moments I had but because of the connections I felt.
“I know that sounds weird, but when you feel the human connection with somebody who has been in deep trouble – I would challenge anyone not to feel a desire to help.
“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. What I want to see, and I think what she would want to see is action, movement and change.”
The documentary will be in two parts, with the first airing on October 30 and the second on October 31 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX, STV and STV Player.