The Princess of Wales is taking her early years campaign internationally during a two-day visit to Reggio Emilia
Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Kate Middleton revealed she is heading to Italy for a solo royal visit
- The trip marks the Princess of Wales’ first overseas work visit since she revealed her cancer diagnosis in 2024
- Princess Kate’s tour will center around one of her key causes: early childhood
Kate Middleton is set for a royal visit abroad.
The Princess of Wales announced she will visit Italy from May 13 to May 14, marking her first work trip overseas since announcing her cancer diagnosis in 2024. Kate, 44, spent much of that year out of the public eye amid her treatment and recovery, and she returned to a fuller schedule of duties after announcing she was in remission in early 2025.
Princess Kate's two-day visit to Reggio Emilia in northern Italy is tied to one of her key causes: early childhood. She sees the trip as a fact-finding mission, and she will spend time digging into Reggio Emilia’s internationally recognized approach to early childhood education. Seeing it as a "significant next step" for her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, Kate will spend time with educators, parents, children and civic and business leaders to see the work in action, her office at Kensington Palace says.
“The Princess is very much looking forward to visiting Italy next week and seeing first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships come together to support children’s development," her spokesperson said in a statement.
The Princess of Wales undertook a similar trip abroad in 2022, visiting Denmark to hear about their approach to children's learning through outdoor lessons and the work at the LEGO Foundation Playlab at the University College Copenhagen (where she memorably took a turn down a slide!).
Credit: Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty
Princess Kate launched The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in 2021, bringing together research, collaboration and action to drive change in how society prioritizes the first years of a person's life. The Shaping Us campaign, launched in January 2023, focuses on the vital impact of the first five years of life on adult development.
"As the Centre for Early Childhood continues to build its work internationally, this visit is an opportunity to connect the Shaping Us Framework with leading global approaches, and to highlight a shared understanding that it is in these early years, through the natural world and the warmth of human connection, that we begin to lay the foundations for a resilient and healthy future," Kensington Palace said.
On May 6, the Princess of Wales will step out at the University of East London to launch a new guide to help those working with the youngest children. Published by The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, Foundations for Life: A Guide to Social and Emotional Development highlights the “vital role of loving, responsive relationships in shaping children’s lifelong health and well-being,” Kate’s office says, and it will be published on a new hub on the Centre for Early Childhood’s website, so that professionals in the sector can access it.
Credit: Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty
In it, Princess Kate makes a new appeal "to place care and connection at the heart of all we do, and to shape a future in which love can truly flourish.”
She writes, “In a world which feels increasingly distracted, fragmented and digital, where life’s pace, noise and interruptions can be overwhelming, I believe it is more important than ever to invest in what truly helps us to thrive: human connection.”
“While our society often focuses on academic or physical milestones, research consistently shows that it is our earliest relationships, experiences and environments which lay the foundations for our future health and happiness," she continues. “The quality of our connections – with ourselves, with others and with the world around us – shapes how safe we feel, how we relate and how we process experiences throughout our lives.”
Credit: Yui Mok – WPA Pool/Getty
The royal reiterates what she has come to learn and understand during her long involvement with the subject: That good foundations for people are laid down at the earliest age.
“By age 5, our brains have already grown to 90% of their adult size, a period during which they form more than a million new connections every second,” Kate writes. “This makes early childhood a critical window for developing the social and emotional skills that become the bedrock of lifelong wellbeing and opportunity.”
During her visit on May 6, Princess Kate will meet families, researchers, students and education leaders from across the U.K. who are committed to embedding a new guide from her center into their teaching, training and professional practice.
It is expected that she will discuss her center’s latest research, which shows that parents value opportunities to speak with knowledgeable, trusted practitioners and, when professional support is limited, parents often turn to friends, family or online advice. Many others, the center found, feel overwhelmed.
Credit: Adrian Dennis – WPA Pool/Getty
The Princess of Wales' effort to inspire and lead on the early years drives much of her royal work. In addition to the Shaping Us framework, which she says “identifies the key social and emotional skills that enable us to thrive," she has also widened her early years initiatives to involve business and corporations in recognizing that without supporting employees with children, support and nurturing of those in their first years will not be so forthcoming. In November, Kate and her Centre for Early Childhood hosted the Future Workforce Summit in London’s business district, making a speech and listening to panel discussions on the subject.
Harvard University's Professor Robert Waldinger, who penned an essay with Princess Kate last October, said the royal is having a “huge impact” on the subject. "Early childhood development is not glamorous. It's quiet and privately done, and the lack of resources doesn't get a lot of attention. And the caregivers are so underappreciated," he told PEOPLE at the meeting. "So, what she's doing by lending her voice to this is huge. And then bringing in business leaders who have a chance to make a difference is an incredible way to use the platform that she has.”
Research psychologist and professor Marc Brackett, from Yale University, who also took part in the summit, added, “When you get major CEOs to be talking about the value and importance of social and emotional development, then schools and other places take it seriously. The princess has done an amazing job at activating people's minds about the value and importance of this."
Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
Backing her initiative is one of the charities she has worked closely with since her first years as a royal. Anna Freud, a mental health charity, is headed by Eamon McCrory, who has been working with Kate on the initiative for about a decade. “The Princess is continuing to build a societal narrative about the importance of childhood, of relationships and healthy development," he told PEOPLE last year.
"At Anna Freud, we’ve been re-imagining mental health care for more than 70 years, but the princess is looking forward to the future in a rapidly changing society. Her recent essay, as well as her recent talk, emphasize how we need to come together to really strengthen the bonds to help protect well-being and prevent mental health problems and addictions from emerging in the first place.”
Read the full article here
