Pictured: Princess of Wales visits women’s prison

The Princess of Wales has visited a women’s prison to meet new mothers with their babies and those expecting.

The Princess spent almost 90 minutes at HMP Styal in Cheshire, where a unit for prisoners with babies aged under 18 months is run by one of her patronages, Action for Children.

The visit was arranged to show how mothers and babies can be supported within the justice system.

New and expectant mothers live in a separate area of the prison and are taught how to care for their babies and develop strong maternal bonds by specialist staff.

The Princess met employees and former inmates of HMP Styal, before visiting the on-site nursery and hearing from current prisoners about the support they and their babies were receiving from the charity.

The Princess, who wore a brown checked full-length coat over a knitted brown skirt and polo neck with suede boots, was escorted through the main gate by Nicky Hargreaves, the prison governor.

Carrying an umbrella, she laughed as both women tried to squeeze through at the same time.

As the Princess walked the prison grounds, dozens of women inmates leant out of the windows to catch a glimpse of their royal visitor.

There was a loud wolf-whistle and cat-calls, while others shouted: “We need more funding. Tell them the truth!”

The Princess waved and said hello to other inmates who were leaning through the windows of a portacabin.

HMP Styal is one of four UK prisons that runs a restaurant called The Clink, which is open to the public and aims to provide inmates with the skills required to work in top eateries.

The widely acclaimed project is run by The Clink Charity and backed by Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the daughter of the late Duke of Westminster.

Of the 500 prisoners who have worked in Clink restaurants and gone on to gainful employment once released, only six – around one per cent – have reoffended.

Lady Edwina, who is married to the broadcaster Dan Snow, studied criminology at Northumbria University before completing a stint as a support worker at HMP Styal. “It’s nicknamed ‘the cutting house’ because of all the self-harm that goes on,” she told Tatler magazine last year.

The Clink Restaurant at Styal is frequently in the top ten restaurants in Wilmslow on TripAdvisor.

The Princess has long been determined to use her platform to raise awareness of the critical importance of the early years.

She has highlighted evidence that the psychological attachment between a baby and its primary caregiver in the first few months of life can influence later development.

The work undertaken by the Princess’s Centre for Early Childhood is rooted in research that found the experiences of young children aged five and under can lead to social challenges, including addiction, family breakdown, poor mental health, suicide and homelessness.

In June 2023, the Princess opened The Hope Street Centre in Southampton, a residential accommodation designed to provide a safe alternative to prison for women and their children as they go through the courts.

She described the centre as “inspirational”, pinning a handwritten message to a tree that said: “I see you and I’m with you. Good luck in all that lies ahead.”

By meeting with women in prison, the Princess has followed in the footsteps of her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, who visited New Hall Prison near Flockton, West Yorks, in May 1993.

But this was not the Princess of Wales’s first experience of a prison.

In both 2015 and 2020, she visited HMP Send, near Woking in Surrey, to speak with female prisoners about their history of offending and addiction.

Many told her they traced their crimes back to troubled childhoods involving domestic violence, absent parents and drug and alcohol abuse.

In 2023, the Princess visited HMP High Down in Surrey to learn how male inmates were being supported through addiction.

The Princess has worked with addiction charities for more than a decade, which has in turn informed much of her work on changing attitudes towards the early years.

She became patron of The Forward Trust in June 2021, when the charity merged with Action on Addiction, which was one of the first patronages she took on in 2012. The Princess also became patron of Action for Children in 2016.

The visit came as Kensington Palace confirmed it would continue to reveal details of the Princess’s fashion choices during certain public engagements.

It was suggested last month that following the Princess’s return to work after a cancer diagnosis and a gruelling course of chemotherapy, the palace would no longer release information about her wardrobe as she wanted the focus to be on the causes she was spotlighting rather than her style.

However, a palace spokesman clarified that there had been “no change” in its approach to sharing information about the Princess’s clothing as and when appropriate.

The Princess has become known as a master of diplomatic dressing, often choosing what she wears with care, based on the dress code required and the messages she would like to project.

Her patronage also has a demonstrable effect on sales, placing a global spotlight on independent British labels such as Beulah, Emilia Wickstead, Edeline Lee and Erdem, as well as international brands on overseas tours.