The Duke of Sussex has made a personal donation of £1.1m to a BBC Children in Need project in Nottingham supporting young people who have been affected by violence.
Prince Harry is on the second day of a UK visit, where he’s been attending charity events.
In Nottingham he visited the Community Recording Studio, an initiative supported by BBC Children in Need, where he applauded a rap music performance, giving a hug to one of the young people taking part.
The prince hoped the donation, from his own money rather than his Archewell organisation, would help “changemakers in the city continue their mission to create safe spaces… and offer hope and belonging to young people who need it most”.
Prince Harry told the event that “Nottingham has been a place where I’ve heard harrowing stories, learned important lessons, seen resilience, and felt truly inspired”.
“The challenges remain serious and sadly aren’t getting any easier,” said Prince Harry. “Violence impacting young people, particularly knife crime, continues to devastate lives, cut futures short, and leave families in grief.”
He praised the efforts of those in the city who were working to tackle issues such as “food poverty, racism and educational inequality”.
Looking relaxed and wearing jeans, Harry met youth workers and local groups at the recording studio and heard about their efforts to tackle violence in Nottingham, in a scheme supported by BBC Children in Need.
“You gave me goosebumps,” he said after listening to a rapper called Paige.
“I was proper nervous,” Paige told Prince Harry about her first visit to the recording studio. “I’d never seen a booth or a mic or anything. So I’m listening to all these rappers on YouTube – and I’m like, ‘How do they even make that?'”
A young comedian, Ki’miya, teased Prince Harry about different backgrounds growing up by saying: “I bet you never had to stand on a chair to get a Hobnob.”
As well as showing a few dance moves when he arrived, and turning down the chance to sing backing vocals, Prince Harry joined conversations about creating more positive opportunities for young people.
BBC Children in Need is now one of the country’s biggest funders of independent youth workers.
Tony Okotie, the charity’s director of impact, said the donation would help “create spaces where young people feel safe, heard, and empowered to build brighter futures”.
There have been previous significant donations by the prince. He gave £1.2m of the proceeds from his memoir Spare to Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in southern Africa, which he subsequently left in an acrimonious dispute.
Prince Harry arrived in the UK on Monday – and went to lay a wreath on the grave of Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor, on the third anniversary of her death.
But it is still not known whether he will meet his father King Charles during this visit to the UK, despite much speculation that a meeting is on the cards.
The two men have not met face to face since February 2024 and Prince Harry has talked emotionally in a BBC interview about wanting a “reconciliation” with his family.
While Prince Harry has been in Nottingham, his brother the Prince of Wales has been carrying out his own engagements – visiting a housing project in south London as part of his Homewards campaign to tackle homelessness.
On Monday, Prince Harry had attended the WellChild awards in London, while his brother Prince William was at a Women’s Institute meeting in Berkshire, with guests remembering the legacy of the late Queen Elizabeth.
