Poor Little Rich Girl “Envies” The Homeless

Lady Kitty Spencer, the niece of Princess Diana, said she admires the homeless because they have a focus to their lives that she lacks.

Despite her family being worth £100million, she says she struggles with having no purpose in life. But, to fill her time she volunteers at two charities, one of which, Centrepoint in London, provides accommodation and training to homeless people aged 16 to 25.

In an interview in The Times, the 25-year-old socialite 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.”

Ms. Spencer is the eldest daughter of Charles, the 9th Early Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother. She was named ‘most eligible’ girl in Britain by Tatler magazine and is currently dating Italian property developer Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro, who is 20 years older than her and a divorced father of three children.

But she does find her voluntary work 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?’”

All this is a million miles from her comfortable lifestyle. Her ancestral home is the 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.

But she 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.”

“I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to figure out what exactly to do next,” said the University of Cape Town politics and psychology graduate. “I don’t want to look back and see where I could have done more for people. I could be what my Instagram says and nothing more.”