When she married Prince William 12 years ago, Kate Middleton had a good idea what she was getting in to.
She knew that ahead of her lay a life of service, of being a public figure, of supporting good causes and shaking hundreds of thousands of hands.
But what the now Princess of Wales is unlikely to have bargained on is how much her role would change in a relatively short space of time after her wedding. Rather than merely being a smiling figurehead, she is having to join her husband in his crusade to tackle some very tough issues, like homelessness and the UK’s treatment of immigrants.
The easy-going student Kate met at St Andrew’s University many years ago has matured into a man who is determined to use his position of privilege to make a difference to people’s lives. He’s throwing himself wholeheartedly into some initiatives that may have in the past been considered beyond the remit of the royal family. And everyone expects his wife to support him.
While the evolution of their roles may not be quite what Kate, 41, imagined life would be like, she has embraced the changes and is backing William 100 percent.
She is also pressing on with causes close to her heart, such as early childhood development and helping youngsters get the best possible start in life.
“Catherine has adapted to her life without any fuss and she just gets on with things,” says a senior palace insider. “She not only supports William but she gives him confidence to do what he is trying to achieve. They are a great team.”
One of the things William, 41, is determined to do is to help eradicate homelessness in the UK within five years. That’s a tall order – figures suggest that more than 300,000 people, nearly half of whom are children, are living on the streets, in cars or in hostels or other types of temporary accommodation.
Last week, the Prince of Wales launched an ambitious $6 million programme – funded with money from his Royal Foundation – called Homewards, which is designed to bring together various agencies and experts to work on ways of getting people into homes.
Inspired by his late mother, Princess Diana, who first took him to visit a homeless charity when he was 11, William is funding six places around the UK to try different ways to beat homelessness.
“In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need,” he says in a statement. “Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality. I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated.”
William made the announcement about Homewards knowing he was likely to cop criticism given that he has a huge property portfolio that includes the 50,000-hectare Duchy of Cornwall, which he inherited when he became Prince of Wales, and three homes – Anmer Hall, Adelaide Cottage and Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace.
Describing himself as an “unlikely advocate for this cause”, William has recently shown how much he genuinely cares by talking about his intention to build social housing on duchy land.
A Kensington Palace spokesman says if he and Kate were to give up one or more of their homes, it would be dubbed a PR stunt, when William could have more of an impact by changing people’s minds about what homelessness is and creating long-term solutions. Many people who work for homelessness organisations have praised him for his “genuine commitment to the cause”.
Kate has also joined William in supporting Windrush Generation – the migrants from the Caribbean who moved to Britain after World War II (some of them on a ship called Empire Windrush). A scandal erupted in 2018 after the British government wrongly detained and deported some of those immigrants, saying they were illegally in the UK.
William shows his support for immigrants at the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station.
At the recent celebrations marking 75 years since the Windrush immigrants arrived, Kate and William paid tribute to them, and thanked them for their contribution to British society. William is also appearing in a documentary on the subject.
A royal commentator says dealing with issues facing immigrants to Britain, along with apologising for his ancestors’ colonisation of places like the West Indies, is going to be on the agenda for William in the years to come, and he and Kate may end up having to atone for the actions of those who have come before them.
“These issues are not going to go away and there could be some tricky times ahead because attitudes around the action of royals in the past, along with what they are doing now, have changed. They need a united front to deal with some of the issues they will undoubtedly face, but it appears they are already quite the team.”
