Ginger Spice and the Prince of Wales visited a school in Wales as part of William’s U.K. tour to launch Homewards, his new initiative to end homelessness
Prince William had support from a familiar face during his U.K. tour promoting his new project to end homelessness: Spice Girl Geri Halliwell-Horner!
The Prince of Wales and Ginger Spice teamed up during the third stop of Monday’s tour promoting Homewards, his new initiative to combat homelessness. After Prince William, 41, stopped by Lambeth and Bournemouth, he traveled to Newport, Wales. Together with Halliwell-Horner, he visited Maindee Primary School, where they were shown the role that local schools can play in supporting children and families by intervening at the earliest point to prevent homelessness.
Halliwell-Horner, 50, is a big advocate of campaigns for women caught in domestic violence and wanted to be involved in Prince William’s new project because women fleeing challenging situations often find themselves homeless.
The royal family have a long history with the Spice Girls, and Monday’s event was a reunion for Prince William and Halliwell-Horner, who shared a warm hug during the visit.
In 1997, the girl group was on hand to celebrate the 21st anniversary of The Prince’s Trust charity at the Manchester Opera House, and they posed for a fun group photo with then-Prince Charles after their performance. They also traveled to South Africa for a meeting with Charles and South Africa’s then-president, Nelson Mandela, in November 1997 — and Prince Harry tagged along for the trip!
Charles brought sons Prince William and Prince Harry to the 1997 premiere of Spiceworld: The Movie at London’s Leicester Square. At the event, Halliwell-Horner famously broke protocol and “patted” Charles’ bum, she later revealed to The Times. “We’re all human,” she said. “There was a lot of nervous energy — young women, happy antics.”
Victoria (Posh Spice) and David Beckham were also guests at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding at Westminster Abbey.
And last year, Prince William honored Melanie Brown — a.k.a. Scary Spice — with an MBE, and he even asked her if the Spice Girls were planning a reunion.
On Monday and Tuesday, Prince William is set to tour all six of the U.K. locations where the Homewards project is taking place.
The royal started on Monday in Lambeth, a district in South London, where he visited the Mosaic Clubhouse mental health charity that supports people living with mental health conditions. He met Clubhouse members to hear about their lived experiences of homelessness and how Mosaic supported them. William also spent time with representatives from Old Spike Roastery, a specialty coffee social enterprise that offers a way into employment for those affected by homelessness.
For his second stop of the day, Prince William went to Bournemouth to spotlight a practical example of empowering people with skills that help get them into employment. He put his skills to the test at Faithworks Carpentry Workshop, which works to teach woodworking skills and techniques with the goal of ending loneliness, food poverty and homelessness.
Prince William announced his new campaign over the weekend. Homewards is a five-year plan led by his Royal Foundation, but the cause is something he’s championed throughout his life.
The Prince of Wales visited The Passage shelter when he was 11 when his mom Princess Diana brought him and his brother Prince Harry. Like his mom, William became a patron of Centrepoint, another homeless charity (even joining their sleep-out in London in 2009).
“This is something that means so much to him, and it meant so much to his mother. That first visit to the Passage has really inspired this work,” Prince William’s spokesperson says.
“He has been across every detail of this project,” the spokesperson adds. “It was the Prince who asked the Foundation to go away and look at how they could make a real impact on this issue, and he will be involved in every location. For him, it is up there as one of his most important projects. This is not for today or tomorrow. He is committed to transforming the way that we as a nation think about homelessness.”