Prince William fought back tears during an emotional conversation about the impact of suicide with a widow, as part of a mental health PR blitz.
His decision to publish the video with the emotional reaction represents a significant shift in the royal register on such matters, and arguably offers clues as to how he will reign.
The clip dropped as Prince Harry and Meghan in the U.S. and the Waleses launched dueling mental health initiatives.
Harry and Meghan attended the “Project Healthy Minds” gala in New York, where the couple picked up the “Humanitarian of the Year” award.
Kate Middleton has published an essay urging parents not to use their cell phones at the dinner table, saying such habits were fueling an “epidemic of disconnection.”
Among all the focus on the issue for World Mental Health Day, it looks set to be Prince William’s near-tears moment while talking to Rhian Mannings, 48, that will cut through.
In 2012, she lost her husband, Paul Burke, to suicide as the family struggled to cope with the death of their one-year-old son, George, to a hidden illness, just five days earlier.
Sitting down for tea and homemade Welsh cakes at the Mannings family home in Cardiff, William and Mannings discussed the stigma surrounding suicide for a short film.
When the prince asked what she would say to her husband if she could, Mannings replied, “There’s only ever one thing I would ever say to him if I had time with him, and that would be, ‘Why didn’t you speak to me?’ I ask myself that every single day. He’s missed out on so much joy, and we would have been OK. I think that’s what the hardest thing is, we would have been OK.”
Briefly overcome by emotion, William paused and looked away before saying, “I’m sorry…” and reached out his hand across the table. Mannings reassured him, “No, it’s fine. You’ve got children… It’s hard. And you’ve experienced loss yourself.”
Taking a deep breath, the prince added, “There’s a lot of unanswered questions that live with you forever, really, don’t they?”
Mannings said she would “forever go over those last few days” with her husband, wondering what she had missed. “Before we lost George, we were just so happy,” she said. “And I think this just shows that it really can happen to anyone.” She recalled being shocked by the silence surrounding suicide, “Nobody would talk about it or actually say what happened. And I found that really confusing at the time.”
The pair first met in 2017 when Mannings interviewed the prince, then patron of the mental health charity Heads Together, for a BBC documentary. She previously described him as “lovely and very reassuring” after they spoke about the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, and how she worried about her two elder children.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.
