The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met adults in London who grew up without settled homes in their first public engagement of the year.
Kate, 40, arrived in a smart navy coat and a black polo neck at the Foundling Museum in central London on Wednesday.
The museum tells the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity founded in 1739 as a home for children whose mothers couldn’t keep or care for them.
William, 39, could not avoid the drama of his own family as a TV crew asked the Duke “do you support Prince Andrew?” as the couple left the museum. Prince William leaned closer to hear but then walked past without commenting.
The couple meet youngsters who have left care to hear about some of the challenges they have encountered.
Kate, who last year set up her Centre for Early Childhood, and Wills spoke with charity bosses who discussed homelessness, mental health impact and helping young people in care who fail or slip through the cracks.
It was the couple’s first public royal outing of the year.
Taking their seats, Kate asked the experts: “From your experience what makes the difference between a young person succeeding after leaving foster care and when they do not.”
They heard about “challenges for young people” when they regularly move home and are sometimes exploited by the criminal world.
William added: “If you keep moving a child around when they are an adult their relationships are so short and shallow.”
Kate said she was concerned that without providing stable homes for children they risk being moved around and having to “tell their story again and again.”
Will said: “That may become emotionally exhausting to tell the story again and again. We’ve had that in the mental health side of things, people end up on the street, go through hoops and hurdles, tell so many people in authority and nothing changes.
“You have to get to them a lot earlier so they don’t have to keep doing this.”
The couple were said they also worried about the “consistency in care:”
Olympic hero runner Kris Akabusi, poet Lemn Sissay, and Allan Jenkins, editor of Observer Food Monthly, told the Duke and Duchess their experiences of growing up in care.
Akabusi said: “I enjoyed the stability. It was a saviour for me”.
He said leaving care aged 16-years-old was “very traumatic”.
Kate replied: “You are petrified leaving for independence”.
She asked the 400m hurdler if it had affected his relationships.
Kris, with his distinctive laugh, replied: “Yes, but I am a loner.”
He added: “Now aged 63 there is no stigma attached when I say I was brought up in care but there was a stigma when I was 16.”
Women who had previously been in care then joined the couple in an ‘ice-breaker’ armed with three-foot long pencils.
They drew on a canvas what they could see in front of them without looking down at the floor.
Kate - who scored a master of arts degree in art history at St Andrew;s University - laughed out as she struggled with the artwork which had the look of a vast doodle when it was finished.
Duke laughed and said: “I enjoyed it. The kids would really enjoy that.”
Viewing their masterpiece, he added: “That’s beautiful.”
Athlete Kris Akabusi said afterwards: “It is great to have so many vital resources for young people.
“As a young person in care, to know people at the top are interested in your story and growth as an adult is very encouraging.
“Hopefully they are not forgotten. Young people who were in care are over-represented in gangs, sex industry and crime, I hope society has not forgotten them as these children are in care throigh no fault of their ownnso it is great to have this infrastructure.”
The Foundling Museum tells the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity.
It was founded in 1739 as a home for children whose mothers couldn’t keep or care for them.
The Museum delivers training, mentorship programmes and creative projects, led and developed by contemporary artists, writers and musicians, to continue to use creative action to transform and improve the lives of care-experienced young people.
It helps around 30 adults who grew up in care every year.
The Tracing Our Tales is described as a unique programme which has been developed to equip care-experienced young adults from London boroughs with the skills to devise and deliver workshops at the Museum for family groups.
The programme provides paid employment and valuable life skills, including public speaking, critical and creative thinking, and people management, as well as skills in art and creative expression.
