Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer says she envies the homeless because they have ‘focus’
Glamorous socialite, the cousin of Prince William and Prince Harry has been getting her hands dirty helping out at Centrepoint
PRINCESS Diana's niece Lady Kitty Spencer has confessed she admires the homeless because they have a focus to their lives that she lacks.
Despite being part of the Spencer dynasty, worth £100million, the glamorous socialite says she struggles with having no purpose in life.
And to fill her time the 25-year-old has been dividing it between two charities, one of them Centrepoint in London which accommodates and trains homeless people aged 16 to 25.
In an interview with our sister paper, The Times, she said: "The young people that have come out of Centrepoint are so focused on one thing.
"They know exactly what they want to do and what their talents are. So for that I envy them.
";I do battle with what it is that I really want to set my mind to."
Kitty, as she prefers to be known, is the eldest daughter of Charles, the 9th Early Spencer - Princess Diana's brother. Her mother, Victoria, was a model.
She has an Instagram account showing off her flash lifestyle but she admits it "only shows the best bits".
She was named "most eligible" girl in Britain by Tatler and is dating Italian property developer Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro, 20 years older than her.
Despite her wealth her work at Centrepoint is especially close to her heart. Her cousin Prince William is a patron and her aunt Princess Diana was one too.
But she does find it emotionally draining at times. She said: "The first day I did a Centrepoint sports day I left feeling on a high, I felt 'what an amazing way to spend my time'.
"And then I got home and my boyfriend asked me 'how was Centrepoint?'. I said I actually can't talk about it.
"It suddenly came crashing. Because some of them were really, really young and some of them just looked so weak and you just think, 'Where are your parents?'"
She has persuaded a group of her friends to take part in the charity'ss Sleep Out later this month when they will spend a night on the streets.
It will feel a long way from her cushy lifestyle. Her ancestral home is the sprawling 13,000-acre Althorp estate in Northamptonshire where Princess Diana is buried.
Her family moved to South Africa when she was five to escape the paparazzi attention after Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997.
She has little real recollection of her famous aunt and said: "No memories really, I was sort of a baby."
But Lady Kitty says her upbringing in South Africa opened her eyes to poverty. She used to see homeless families camped out by their local supermarket in Cape Town and the sight would make her cry.
But she says anyone can end up homeless. "We all have stereotypes about who becomes homeless but the reality is very different."
Her parents divorced two years later. Both have since remarried and divorced again which has rocked her faith in the instituition, but not completely.
She said: "Family dynamics, it's so fragile and the damage it can do when the dynamics aren't nurtured can be catastrophic.
"It's definitely affected me but it hasn't tainted my views. I still hope for marriage and children."
As well as working at Centrepoint, she also works four days a week for the military charity Give Us Time, which matches soldiers in need to a family holiday with holiday homes and timeshares owned by British families.
Next week she will be at a fundraiser for Centrepoint at Kensington Palace along with her cousin Prince William. Ellie Goulding and Phil Collins will be performing.
On October 21, Princess Diana's stepmother, Raine, Countess Spencer died aged 97. She was was married to Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, between 1976 and 1992.
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