Prince William's heartbreaking chats with George, Charlotte and Louis on school run

Prince William has admitted that while on the school run, he uses the precious time with his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to talk to them about a very poignant and heartbreaking topic

He may be the future King, but Prince William is the same as other parents when it comes to ferrying his three children backwards and forwards to school.

The Prince of Wales, along with wife Kate, are regulars on the school run, taking their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to class every day. And in a candid revelation, William has revealed the poignant chats he has with the three youngsters as he drops off and collects them from school.

In a teaser for a brand new ITV documentary, he reveals that he uses the school run to tell his children about homelessness, just as his late mother did when he was a boy, as he attempts to find ways to tackle the issue.

William said he talks to the trio when they spot rough sleepers – much in the same way that his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, did when he and his brother Prince Harry were children. He tells the ITV1 and ITVX documentary – Prince William : We Can End Homelessness: “When you are that small you are just curious and trying to work out what’s going on. You ask the question ‘why are they sitting there?’

"My mother would talk to us a bit about why they were there and it definitely made a really big impact." In a clip from the upcoming show, William is asked when he felt the right time would be to introduce George, 11; Charlotte, nine; and Louis, six, to homelessness.

He replied: "I am probably already doing it on the school run. The first few times I thought 'do I bring this up or should I wait to see if they notice?' Sure enough, they did. They were sort of in silence when I said what was going on." He also said: "I do think it is really important that you start these conversations when the children are small so they understand the world around them, rather than just living in their own worlds."

The prince was followed for the new ITV programme during the first year of his Homewards initiative. The campaign is a major long-term focus for William, who has told how visiting shelters with his late mother when he was a child left a deep and lasting impression and inspired his work. Homewards aims to develop a blueprint for eradicating homelessness in all its forms, "making it rare, brief and unrepeated".

Elsewhere in the show, William sends a defiant message to critics who have questioned if he should lead a homelessness campaign. In the preview footage, the future King is quizzed about those who might question whether he is the right person to lead the project.

And in response, he insists he has "no other agenda" than "desperately trying to help" people in need through his drive to tackle homelessness and describes how he views his royal role as attempting to influence and help where he can. In the clip, an interviewer probes: "There will be some people who might question whether you’re the right person to lead this project and its efforts to end homelessness. How would you respond to that?"

William replies: "I think everyone having a right to a safe and stable home benefits us all. I come with no other agenda than desperately trying to help people who are in need. And I see that as part of my role, is that, why else would I be here if I’m not using this role properly to influence and help people where I can?"

William himself has several homes – his main home Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, as well as his Anmer Hall mansion in Norfolk and Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace in London.

During the past year, the Homewards teams in six UK locations have been building collaborations between the public, private and third sectors. 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.

The documentary will be broadcast on October 30 and 31 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX, STV and STV Player.