The First Steps of an Heir: George Follows His Father Into Diana’s Legacy

This is dynasty-building by way of service, not symbolism.

Prince William’s decision to bring Prince George into his homelessness work is being treated as a sweet royal anecdote — a gentle echo of Diana taking her 11-year-old son to a shelter decades ago. But beneath the charming photographs, something more deliberate is happening.

For twenty years, William has worked with Centrepoint. He doesn’t drift in and out; he returns, listens, and keeps the focus on outcomes rather than optics. Diana unlocked that instinct in him early, long before he understood what “future king” would demand.

Now, with a steady hand, he is passing that same grounding experience to his heir.

A royal source says William “talks to George, Charlotte and Louis about homelessness a lot.” That feels believable. Anyone who has watched William at work recognises a man who treats dignity not as a slogan, but as a civic responsibility.

In any other family, taking a 12-year-old to a shelter would be a parenting choice. In this one, it is preparation for a life in which duty and empathy can’t simply be taught — they must be felt.

Perhaps this is why the story lands harder than expected. The monarchy is in a fragile season. The King’s health has shifted public expectations. William’s workload has increased; his influence is expanding almost by default. In moments like these, every small choice reads as a clue.

If William wanted to project stability, he could cling to ceremony. Instead, he is taking his eldest child somewhere most future kings never go quietly: into the margins.

C.S. Lewis wrote that courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point. Introducing George to this work is exactly that kind of courage — shaping an heir through reality, not choreography. Royal life will give him enough choreography in time.

When Centrepoint honours William this week for his service, the photographs will circulate, the commentary will churn, and life will move on. The shelters will fill again; the nights will lengthen; the work will need doing.

But for George, this will be a first step into a legacy that predates him — Diana’s instinct to see the person in front of her, William’s decision to build policy around that instinct, and now a young boy quietly learning why service must begin before power.

The monarchy will survive or fail on its ability to feel relevant without becoming performative.

This — quietly, steadily — is what relevance looks like.

✍️ By Catherine White