The Prince and Princess of Wales have consistently used their royal platform for mental health awareness, spearheading the Heads Together campaign with Prince Harry in 2016 and creating a 24/7 crisis text service a few years later. Last year, the Royal Foundation launched the National Suicide Prevention Network, which focuses on research into the causes of suicide and aims to provide accessible support to those in crisis.
Today, joining Greg James for a special episode of Radio 1’s Life Hack, Prince William candidly discussed his own mental health and urged men to open up. He was joined by rapper Professor Green and a spokesperson from James’ Place, a charity offering life-saving treatment for men in suicidal crisis.
Discussing his own personal experience, Prince William shared: “I take a long time trying to understand my emotions and why I feel like I do, and I feel like that’s a really important process to do every now and again, to check in with yourself and work out why you’re feeling like you do. Sometimes there’s an obvious explanation, sometimes there isn’t. I think that idea that mental health crisis is temporary – you can have a strong mental health crisis moment but it will pass.”
The Prince of Wales also highlighted the importance of opening up to others, adding: “Part of feeling comfortable talking about mental health is understanding it… We need more male role models out there, talking about it and normalising it, so that it becomes second nature to all of us.”
Host Greg James explained that the episode was created to ‘help people and get the conversation going’. Professor Green has long been a mental health advocate, and in 2015 he featured in a BBC3 documentary, Suicide and Me, exploring the tragic loss of his father.
The Prince of Wales also went on to say that his three young children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7, are always keen to open up about their feelings, joking: “Sometimes too much. I get all the details.”
He added: “Which I love, it’s amazing. Being able to understand it, have time for it, decipher it, sometimes you feel the sense that you need to fix it for everyone and that I find quite difficult. I have to remind myself that you don’t have to fix everything but you do have to listen. And it’s important to be ok with those feelings and those comments.”
Additional information and support can also be found at the Hub of Hope, the UK’s largest mental health support directory: https://hubofhope.co.uk/.
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