Unseen photos of Diana on homelessness visit with William released, as prince praises 'inspirational' mother

27 October 2024, 08:01 | Updated: 27 October 2024, 13:43

Previously unseen photos of Princess Diana have been released for the first time, as Prince William praised his mother as an "inspiration".

The photos show Diana on a trip to homelessness centre The Passage, along with her sons William and Harry when they were children.

The pictures were released ahead of a new documentary about homelessness fronted by the Prince of Wales.

William, who is in a longstanding feuding with his brother Harry, does not normally talk about him publicly.

This is thought to be the first time he has spoken his name in public for six years, and may hint at a step towards reconciliation.

Diana took her sons to The Passage to give them more experience of life outside their privileged existence. William is now a dedicated homelessness campaigner and said his mother was an "inspiration".

He said: "I have taken some inspiration and guidance from what my mother did, particularly with homelessness. That has grown more over the last few years. When I was very small my mother started talking about homelessness – much like I do now with my children on the school run."

The prince said he was "a bit anxious as to what to expect" before his first visit, and remembered his mother - Diana, Princess of Wales - "making everyone feel relaxed and having a laugh and joking with everyone".

He told the documentary - Prince William: We Can End Homelessness: "My mother took me to The Passage. 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.

"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'. But it was incredible how happy an environment it was.

"I remember having some good conversations just playing chess and chatting. That's when it dawned on me that there are other people out there who don't have the same life as you do.

"When you're quite small, you don't really, you just think life is what you see in front of you and you don't really have the concept to look elsewhere and it's when you meet people, I did then, who put a different perspective in your head and say like, well, 'I was a living on the street last night', and you're like 'woah', you know."

The prince was followed for the programme during the first year of his Homewards initiative.

The campaign is a major long-term focus for William, who has told how visiting shelters with his late mother when he was a child left a deep and lasting impression and inspired his work.

Homewards aims to develop a blueprint for eradicating homelessness in all its forms, "making it rare, brief and unrepeated".

Previously unseen pictures, used in the documentary, which show the prince on his first visits to The Passage with his mother in 1993, have also been released.

In one image, William wears a red polo shirt and is playing chess during a visit on June 14 1993 and in the others he is in a suit and tie with Diana on December 14 of the same year seen holding presents in one image, in the kitchen in another and sitting down in the last.

During the past year, the Homewards teams in six UK locations - Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield and three neighbouring Dorset towns, Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch - have been building collaborations between the public, private and third sectors.

The documentary will be broadcast on October 30 and 31 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX, STV and STV Player.