Prince William Acknowledges Period Stigma and Says He'll Lean on Kate Middleton for Future Talk with Princess Charlotte

Simon PerryWed, June 3, 2026 at 6:15 PM UTC

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Kate Middleton and Prince William; Princess Charlotte
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Prince William was asked about menstrual health, including addressing the topic with his daughter, Princess Charlotte, at the SXSW London Festival

Vivi Lin, the founder of the NGO "With Red," tells PEOPLE, "I took the courage to ask him a really important question: I asked him, 'Are you ready to talk to your daughter about periods?' "

She adds that William's response "will be really important for a lot of dads with daughters because a lot of people are struggling and don’t know how to talk to their daughters about periods"

Prince William left one recipient of The Diana Legacy Award impressed by his honest answer to her question about menstrual health.

The Prince of Wales, 43, took part in a discussion on young people’s issues as part of the SXSW London Festival on Wednesday, June 3, joining two Diana Award legacy winners for the panel.

One was Vivi Lin, the founder of the NGO "With Red" to tackle period stigma and help people understand menstrual issues, who asked the royal heir about how the topic would be handled in his own family.

"I took the courage to ask him a really important question: I asked him, 'Are you ready to talk to your daughter about periods?' and how he is preparing," she tells PEOPLE, referring to William and Kate Middleton's 11-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte.

"He answered genuinely and smiled and said, 'This is a topic I am not familiar with,' and it was really lovely," continued Lin, 27. "But he said he knows it is going to be a conversation that he would need to have in the future. He said he will try to do so with the help of his wife."

"He acknowledged there is still menstrual stigma across the world and a lot of people don’t know about it," she added. "Coming from Prince William, that he knows he knows he needs to talk to his daughter — and he needs the help of his wife to talk to her about it — will be really important for a lot of dads with daughters because a lot of people are struggling and don’t know how to talk to their daughters about periods."

Prince William and Kate Middleton attend Easter church on April 5, 2026
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The NGO works on "everything about periods, from education to policy," and Lin says they work to ensure that, from a young age, women know how to use menstrual products and cope with the menstrual cycle.

Lin said the discussion with Prince William also touched on the disconnect in society.

"He mentioned the loss of human connection," she explains. "We are pretty much online, all generations, and he was saying how important it was to restore that human-to-human connection and having people look at each other in the eyes and having that conversation in person."

She says she was impressed by Prince William, including his support of how sports clubs in the U.K. are adapting new systems for female athletes to meet their needs.

"We have very different biological cycles, and if we are using the same training schedules, that wouldn’t work," she says. "He spoke about his passion for football and supporting female football players on this."

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Vivi Lin and Prince William in London on June 3, 2026
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Prince William also spoke with Sophie Pender, who set up The 93% Club, a network designed to help publicly educated graduates have the same networking and other opportunities offered to privately educated young people. The panel explored how a new generation is "rewiring power" by using creativity, activism, entrepreneurship and community action to tackle the issues shaping their futures, from mental health and inequality to online harms and social division.

In the panel discussion, Pender and Prince William spoke about global issues like populism and how young people are operating outside of traditional institutions.

"There is almost this counter culture of young people creating the solutions for the problems that other people find too complex to solve,” she says.

Prince William attends the Diana Award event on June 3, 2026
Credit: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty

Pender adds that the conversation moved on to smartphone use. “With the rise of digital and smartphones, we have lost that ability to connect. He was very personable, curious. The ability to lean in with a classic hand on the shoulder, leaning in and understanding someone being curious — this was something he thought was a skill that is really essential to us in a healthy society.”

Prince William’s background was very different from the majority. “He was saying what connects us,” she says. “For us to be able to have a conversation in a really meaningful way is definitely something.”

Chatting to Prince William afterward, Pender asked him what he sees when he looks at the country.

"Of all the people, he probably meets the biggest cross section of society you can get,” Pender tells PEOPLE. “He was saying, 'At our core, we are simple people. He meets people who, in theory, wouldn’t see eye to eye, but actually, we all want the same thing: love and safety and health and happiness.' "

Prince William attends the Diana Award event on June 3, 2026
Credit: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty

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Dr. Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award, said in a statement that they were delighted to be joined by Prince William at the event.

“Like us, we know he is proud to see the voices of young people at the heart of this event, empowering them to lead conversations on the defining and pressing issues of our time," she said. "These young people are not simply responding to the world they inherit but actively reshaping it and through this making a lasting positive impact.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”