The King’s flagship youth charity decided to cancel a fitness course for disadvantaged girls instead of preventing biological males from attending.
The King’s Trust was due to run a ‘Get started with Boxing and Fitness for Women’ course for girls aged 16 to 25 that was open to ‘female identifying/presenting’ people.
A concerned parent contacted King Charles’ charity to raise safeguarding concerns, including that this could have allowed a 25-year-old biological male to punch teenage girls.
But instead of limiting the course to biological women only, as the parent had requested, the King’s Trust instead decided to ‘withdraw it as an offer to young people’.
Women’s rights groups have responded with fury and demanded the King’s charity reinstate the course so that disadvantaged young women and girls can benefit from it.
The boxing course was originally launched by King’s Trust ambassador and Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams, who has spoken in favour of protecting women’s sports for biological females.
The webpage for the free course, which has since been taken down, said it was due to take place between 23 and 27 February in Bristol.
It was open to young women and girls not in work, education or training and would have helped them gain a qualification and ‘discover your strengths, take on challenges and grow your confidence’.
After seeing the flyer, a concerned parent contacted the charity to say that it was a ‘wonderful idea’, but they were ‘appalled’ by the eligibility criteria, and demanded the course be made single sex.
The parent wrote: ‘Not only is it unfair on women and girls who want to take part and might miss out on participation because a man takes their place, it is also unsafe to allow biological males to box with/against girls and women and share their spaces including changing rooms and toilets.’
Days later a King’s Trust employee responded with an email seen by the Mail that said: ‘In recognition of the decision of the Supreme Court, and the specific nature of the activity that this programme offers, we have taken the decision to withdraw it as an offer to young people.’
Su Wong from SEEN in Sport, which campaigns to keep women’s sports single sex, said the charity ‘would rather deny young women the chance of participating at all than possibly offend someone’.
She added: ‘The King’s Trust does incredible work but it needs to ensure that everyone throughout the charity understands that you should not use ideological language and you cannot discriminate against women and girls.
‘If it says it’s “for women”, that means it’s for women only. We urge the King’s Trust to reinstate this course so that young women get the opportunity to boost their self-confidence, physical and mental health.’
King Charles founded the Prince’s Trust (now the King’s Trust) in 1976 to provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people, and it has since helped more than a million achieve their ambitions.
Women’s rights groups recognise the good work the charity does but have called for it to reverse its decision on the boxing course.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said it ‘shouldn’t have taken a Supreme Court judgment’ to tell the King’s Trust that it should not allow biological males ‘to punch women for sport’.
The UK’s highest court ruled almost a year ago – in April 2025 – that sex in the Equality Act refers to biological women and men and not to self-identification or a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Ms Joyce added: ‘It’s outrageous that a registered charity that aims to support the physical and moral development of young people and enable them to “become responsible members of society” would rather remove opportunities for young women to keep fit than tell men who identify as women that their identity doesn’t give them the right to punch women.’
The King’s Trust said it had taken the decision to withdraw the course while it evaluates its programmes in light of the Supreme Court ruling.
