When his father Charles became King, Prince William took over the running of the huge Duchy of Cornwall estate – and previous comments about running the estate from the heir to the throne prompted an emotional reaction from the monarch
King Charles and Prince William have seen much upheaval in recent years since the death of the late Queen.
Both have had their royal roles change dramatically with Charles ascending to the throne and William becoming the Prince of Wales. When William was bestowed with his new title, it also came with the title of Duke of Cornwall and responsibility for overseeing the vast Duchy of Cornwall estate. It was previously run by Charles for more than 50 years when he was Prince of Wales and he took great interest in its success.
And during an ITV documentary, Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall, viewers saw Charles open up like never before – where he revealed how a comment by his eldest son about the estate reduced him to tears.
In a clip, viewers saw William talking to a second-generational farmer, Mervyn Keeling, about his private estate. William, thinking about the future at the time, said: “I’ve started to think about how I will inherit the Duchy one day and what I do with it. I think it’s really important, the family angle, I really do.”
Viewers were then shown a clip of Charles, who reflected on the conversation between his son and the farmer. He revealed: “When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. I was deeply touched and moved by what he said. Frankly, it reduced me to tears. It did, really. Because, I suddenly thought, well, just hearing that from him has made the last 50 years worthwhile.”
Now, since becoming the Duke of Cornwall, William has taken full responsibility for the Duchy of Cornwall – and beginning to make his own mark on it.
He previously announced plans to build houses on Duchy land to tackle homelessness, with 24 homes in Nansledan, Newquay, alongside “wrap-around support” for local people to create a path to a permanent home.
Tackling homelessness is a major long-term focus for William, who has told how visiting shelters with his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales as a child left a deep and lasting impression and inspired his work. His campaign Homewards aims to develop a blueprint for eradicating homelessness in all its forms, “making it rare, brief and unrepeated”.
Six Homewards locations were chosen – Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield and three neighbouring Dorset towns, Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch – with the aim of delivering bespoke solutions to issues in each area.
