Prince William meets with homeless people at a charity in London previously visited by Diana

Prince William commemorated his late mother this morning during a visit to a charity for the homeless that she opened more than 30 years ago.

The Prince of Wales, 40, arrived at Depaul UK in London today to meet people receiving help from the charity, as well as staff working on their programmes.

He follows in the footsteps of Princess Diana, who visited the charity in 1990, 1993 and 1995. Diana opened the first Depaul Trust Hostel in Willesden in June 1995.

William’s visit follows Prince Harry’s attacks on his brother and sister-in-law Kate in his bombshell memoir Spare – as the Duke finds himself embroiled in a diplomatic row over Iran’s execution of a British-Iranian national.

Prince William visited Depaul UK this morning, 30 years after his late mother Princess Diana began working for the charity

Despite an almighty fallout from his brother’s memoir, Prince William looked professional as ever during his visit to Depaul UK this morning following Kate’s first solo outing yesterday since the book’s release.

During the visit, he met with people who now use or have used the service, as well as staff from employability and education programs run by the charity.

The Duke has made working with the homeless one of his most important responsibilities as part of his royal duties.

He is patron of the charity Centrepoint for the homeless and announced in 2020 that he is speaking about the issue of homelessness with his older children Prince George, now eight, and Princess Charlotte, now seven.

Speaking to Mary Berry for her Christmas special, A Berry Royal Christmas, he said: “Even on the school run remember they’re six and four, if we see someone who’s sleeping badly on the street I’ll talk about it and I’ll point it out go and explain why and they are all very interested. They’re like, ‘Why can’t they go home?’

Princess Diana first visited the charity in 1990 (pictured during one of her many visits) where she worked with the homeless

Prince Harry, who launched a series of scathing attacks on his brother William in his memoir Spare and Interviews to promote the book, has also grown fond of the charity (pictured visiting in 2017).

In 2019, the Duke became a patron of The Passage, an organization founded in 1980 that has helped more than 135,000 people in crisis through its resource center, homelessness prevention projects and innovative shelter services.

Diana first brought the King and his brother, the Duke of Sussex, to the charity in 1993 when the two were boys and William made numerous public and private trips to the charity.

In December 2009, a then 27-year-old Prince William spent a night in bed trying to understand the plight of the homeless at Christmas.

He arrived just before midnight and remained outside in a central London alley surrounded by bins in temperatures as low as minus 4C (24F).

Prince William, who has made homelessness one of his top priorities as king, appeared in good spirits today

The Prince of Wales chatted to clients while visiting the youth homelessness charity in London today

The second in line to the throne was joined by his right-hand man at St James’s Palace, former SAS officer Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, one of Scotland Yard’s police constables who accompanies him everywhere, and Seyi Obakin, Centrepoint’s chief executive.

Dressed in jeans, sneakers, a hoodie and a hat, he was not recognized as he placed a piece of cardboard on the ground and climbed into his sleeping bag.

It wasn’t an entirely new experience for former Army officer William, who has often lived hard on exercises. But it certainly wasn’t comfortable as temperatures dropped making sleep almost impossible.

After a fitful sleep, William rolled up his sleeping bag at 6 a.m. and walked the streets for 45 minutes, stopping to talk to several homeless people along the way.

In 2020, it was revealed he was speaking to his older children, Prince George, now eight, and Princess Charlotte, now seven, about the issue of homelessness

The Prince of Wales appeared professional as he met with staff and service users at Depaul UK in London

William, 40, is set to focus on homelessness as one of his priorities this year

He went to Centrepoints Hostel on Greek Street, Soho, where he showered before cooking breakfast and cutting a cake for some of the residents to celebrate the charity’s 40th anniversary.

He was a little better off than the average late riser, being accompanied by his armed bodyguard, his private secretary – a former SAS officer – and the executive director of the homeless charity.

Even the venue, a secluded location near Blackfriars Bridge in the City, was carefully chosen for security reasons.

The Duke said afterwards that the experience helped deepen his understanding of life on the road.

Depaul UK, which operates in London and the South East, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and the North East, specializes in supporting young people.

It helps its users to find medium to long-term housing, offers various programs to help them get into work and offers mental health support.

Following a claim in his memoir that he killed around 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, the Iranian regime used the comments to justify its hanging of British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari, 61, over the weekend.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that Britain was “unfit to preach on human rights” after Harry’s comments.

Iran assassinated Alireza Akbari after he was accused of being an MI6 spy.

Following Harry’s claims, senior army officials have labeled the Duke a “dumb boy”.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British military commander in Afghanistan, said: “Harry should take full responsibility for supplying ammunition to the propaganda machine of the murderous Iranian regime.

“While all decent people will reject Iran’s lies, many of their supporters will be empowered by the ayatollahs’ exploitation of the Duke’s ill-considered comments.”

Meanwhile, the Duke continued his attacks on his family this weekend as he demanded they apologize to his wife Meghan.

Diana visited the charity for the homeless several times throughout her life, including in 1990 (pictured).

Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales also opened a youth welfare branch in Willesden (pictured) in the 1990s.

In an interview with the Telegraph, he sent a message to the royals urging them to “get clean” as he told them: “You know what you’ve done.”

Harry also said he wanted to help reform the monarchy so that his niece and nephews Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis weren’t affected by the concept of the “reserve” in the same way he was.

After expressing concern that one of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children might also end up feeling like a “surrogate”, he claimed Prince William “made it very clear that the children are not [Harry’s] Responsibility’.

Despite several bombastic claims in his memoir, Harry has also revealed that the first draft of the autobiography was twice as long as the final draft, but that he ended up leaving out details for fear his family would not forgive him.

Speaking of his family, he said: “I wish you would really sit down with me, right, and instead of saying I’m delusional and paranoid, actually sit down and have a proper conversation about it, because what I would really do like one.” some accountability. And an apology to my wife.

“Because you know what you did and now I know why you did it. And you got caught, so just come in and then we could all move on.’