Prince William has been in Singapore for the past few days, where last night the third annual Earthshot Prize Awards were held. (The ceremony’s first iteration took place in London in 2021; last year, it was held in Boston.) William undertook the visit solo, as Princess Kate stayed behind in the U.K. to help their eldest son, Prince George, through exams. Today, on his last day in Singapore, William candidly expressed that it is his wish to “do more” and make significant change in the British royal family, as he prepares to lead it, whenever that day may come.
Of The Earthshot Prize—one of William’s passion projects, founded in 2020—William said that he feels its growth: “I think the big thing for me is that this year feels bigger than last year,” he said. “So we’re progressing and we’re building as we go.”
The Earthshot Prize is just one of his initiatives focused on work that truly matters to him. As he rounded the corner to closing out his first 365 days as Prince of Wales, William launched Homewards, which tackles homelessness—an issue long close to his heart, embedded there after his mother, Princess Diana, exposed him to homelessness in London when he was a child.
Similarly, his wife, the Princess of Wales, has launched her own passion project, Shaping Us, which will become her “life’s work”; the initiative spotlights the critical importance of a child’s early years and how they shape adulthood.
William and Kate are charting their own course and doing work that really matters to them, and the shift has been palpable since becoming Prince and Princess of Wales following Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022. But busy though they may already be (add into the mix that the two are also raising three kids 10 years old and under), William said today that he wants to take it up a notch.
“So I think the thing that ties it all together for me is about social leadership,” he said, per The Mirror. “That’s what I’m trying to find my way in, is I care about so many things, and previously the family have been very much spotlighting brilliantly and going ‘round and highlighting lots. I want to go a step further. I want to actually bring change, and I want to bring people to the table who can do the change if I can’t do it.”
Elevating to the next level is “all about progressing, helping, and advancing particular social causes that need to be given more support,” William said. “I’ve been in the homelessness sector for a long time now, and so, rather than just being patron, I want to do more. I want to actually build the homes. I want to provide them with the mental support—all the employment and the education they might need.”
One of the key aims is to choose causes close to his heart, focus on those, and not take on too much, preferring to go deep on a few projects than shallow on many. “So it’s all these wraparound services—it’s kind of going deeper and longer than it is the case of just having loads of causes that you sort of turn up and keep an eye on,” William said. “It’s more about, ‘How do I show my intent more? How do we do more for you? And give you a better, better future.' But you have to remain focused. If you spread yourself too thin, you just can’t manage it, and you won’t deliver the impact or the change that you really want to happen.”
One of those chosen few projects going forward, at least until 2030, will be The Earthshot Prize, which William said is not “just an awards ceremony.”
“People think this is philanthropy,” he said. “They think it’s just a prize ceremony. It’s not. This is so much more. It’s about, ‘How much impact can we achieve by scaling and building up and spotlighting these incredible people with brilliant solutions?’ We’ve just got to join some more dots between policy regulators, governments’ money, and then you blend it all together and then see the impact from that.”
William is headed home after four days in Singapore.
