Kate Middleton to ‘sleep rough’ for charity

The Duchess of Cambridge will rough it for a night following her husband's example

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, is going to be leaving the palace and possibly her pricey wardrobe behind and sleep on London's streets.

For one night anyway.

She, along with Centrepoint ambassador and actress Lisa Maxwell, will raise awareness of the growing homeless problem in the city by doing a "Sleep Out". It's a problem that's increased about 20 per cent.

The Duchess got the idea when meeting Maxwell at a party, according to the Daily Mirror. Maxwell is already an ambassador with the charity and told Middleton she should follow her husband's example and join her with helping the charity.

She isn't the first royal to take part in a Sleep Out. Her husband, Prince William, became a patron of the charity in 2005 and slept on the streets for the charity in 2009. According to the Mirror, he settled down next to wheelie bins close to Blackfriars Bridge. He was accompanied by the Centrepoint chief executive, Seyi Obakin, and were almost run over by a street cleaner in the middle of the night. William's mother Diana was also a patron and also spent a night on the streets.

Obakin wrote on the Centrepoint website, William "was determined to do it as patron to raise awareness of the problem and to be able to understand a little better what rough sleepers go through."

A St James' Palace spokesperson said at the time: "Prince William took away from the experience the importance of tackling all the issues that cause people to be homeless and stay homeless, from drug dependency to mental health problems."

While Middleton is usually photographed wearing designer clothing, she has roughed it before. Earlier this month she dressed down and went trudging through the mud with some inner-city elementary school children in the countryside. She also had tea around a camp fire in the Northwest Territories during her and William's tour of Canada last year.