Royal Watch News

Duchess Catherine to sleep on the streets

Jun 29, 2012, 12:01 GMT

Duchess Catherine

Britain's Duchess Catherine is to sleep on the streets to highlight a homeless problem in London.

The 30-year-old royal will be joined by TV star Lisa Maxwell, ambassador of homeless charity Centrepoint - which Catherine's husband Prince William is a patron of, as his late mother Princess Diana was before him - when they bed down for one night as part of a Sleep Out campaign.

Lisa - a panellist on daytime talk show 'Loose Women' - revealed the duchess promised her she would sleep rough the next time the 48-year-old star takes part in the campaign to raise awareness of the growing number of homeless people in the capital city.

She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'I work with Centrepoint and William's our patron. We had a little do and they both came down.

'She asked me about sleeping out, so I said, 'Next time I do it, you're doing it with me. No excuses, he's done it.' She said, 'You're on'.'

William was almost run over by a roadsweeper when he slept on the streets one evening close to Christmas in 2009. He bedded down for the night next to some rubbish bins near London's Blackfriars Bridge.

A St James' Palace spokesperson said at the time: 'Prince William took away from the experience the importance of tackling all the issues that cause people to be homeless and stay homeless, from drug dependency to mental health problems.'