Love and family ...Kate's first speech after cancer fight comes straight from the heart

Royal calls on business chiefs to invest in child development

- RUSSELL MYERS and JENNIFER NEWTON

THE Princess of Wales has made a passionate plea to create a happier and healthier society through the power of family life and love.

Caring Kate put core values at the heart of a moving speech, her first since she received her cancer diagnosis.

The mother-of-three said love is the first and most essential bond and foundation of a child's life.

Speaking to business leaders in the City of London, she urged them to prioritise "time and tenderness", not just productivity, and invest in children's early years development.

At the Future Workforce Summit, which was convened by her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, she called on them to recognise the importance of family life.

Kate said: "My passion and the work of The Centre for Early Childhood, stems from one essential truth; that the love we feel in our earliest years fundamentally shapes who we become and how we thrive as adults.

"Love is the first and most essential bond. But it is also the invisible thread, woven with time, attention and tenderness, through consistent, nurturing relationships, which creates the grounded and meaningful environments around a child.