Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
News

Prince William has been meeting Big Issue vendors again

Just days after Prince William tried his hand at selling The Big Issue, the future king bumped into another vendor in Cambridge.

Eamonn Kelly meets Prince William and wife Kate

Kate and William at Christ the Redeemer church, Newmarket Road, Cambridge. They are shown with Big Issue vendor Eamonn Kelly who welcomed the pair to the nearby pod home where he has lived for two years. Image: CambridgeshireLive

Prince William hit the headlines earlier this month after his spell selling The Big Issue – now it has been revealed the future king has caught up with another vendor just days later.  

During a visit to modular homes development Jimmy’s in Cambridge, William, this time with Catherine, posed with our man Eamonn Kelly after spending 45 minutes chatting to the vendor on his sofa on June 23.

Kelly, 52, who sells The Big Issue on Trinity Street in the city, has lived in the pod for two years and was happy to welcome the royal couple into his home as part of William’s continued education on homelessness.

“I always liked William because he reminds me of his mum and he is like her: he’s loyal, he’s down-to-earth and he doesn’t judge you. I told him my mum died five months ago and he told me he knows what that’s like. He shook my hand and told me it doesn’t get any easier,” said Eamonn, who has been selling The Big Issue magazine for 15 years.

“He’s a down-to-earth guy. We spoke about homelessness and he told he’d never seen a place as clean as my pod. I said I try!  I told him how I had a crack habit for six years but now I’m clean as a whistle”.

Prince William tried his hand at selling The Big Issue earlier in June alongside London seller Dave Martin.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Prince WIlliam and Big Issue seller Dave Martin in red Big Issue hats and tabards stand in conversation as an elderly woman walks past
A slow start gave Prince William and Big Issue seller Dave Martin a chance to chat. Image: Andy Parsons/Big Issue

The future monarch, who donned the iconic red tabard as part of his 40th birthday celebrations said he “refused to believe that homelessness is an irrevocable fact of life” after his spell selling the magazine.

“I wanted to experience the other side and see what it was like to be a Big Issue vendor. My time was truly eye opening,” said William. “ I was lucky to join Dave on a warm, sunny day in June. People recognised a familiar face and were happy to give me the time of day. But that isn’t the case for the vast majority of Big Issue vendors.”

Read more about what happened when Prince William sold The Big Issue:

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

GIVE A GIFT THAT CHANGES A VENDOR'S LIFE THIS WINTER 🎁

For £36.99, help a vendor stay warm, earn an extra £520, and build a better future.
Grant, vendor

Recommended for you

View all
HMRC mistakingly strips 17,000 parents of their child benefit: 'The impact of these errors is brutal'
A stock image of a mother with two babies. Image: Unsplash
Benefits

HMRC mistakingly strips 17,000 parents of their child benefit: 'The impact of these errors is brutal'

Labour's U-turn over digital ID plans raises more questions and concerns than answers
a person using a phone
Digital ID

Labour's U-turn over digital ID plans raises more questions and concerns than answers

Trump wants to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. Will it really work?
Donald Trump
Credit

Trump wants to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. Will it really work?

How the UK's only cash-first food bank is shattering myths around aid: 'Cash is the issue'
Food banks

How the UK's only cash-first food bank is shattering myths around aid: 'Cash is the issue'