Prince William, Prince of Wales, during a visit to the BBC Children in Need We Move FWD program at the Uble Initiative at the Wolves Lane Center on January 28, 2026 in London, England.
- Britain's Prince William spoke candidly about his mental health strategies on Wednesday.
- The heir to the throne revealed: “It takes me a long time to understand my feelings”.
- The 43-year-old prince and his wife Catherine have long made mental health support one of their key issues.
Britain's Prince William opened up about his mental health strategies on Wednesday, with the heir to the throne revealing it takes him “a long time to understand my emotions”.
Joining a panel discussion on the BBC's youth-focused Radio 1 station, William called for “more male role models” to help normalize mental health discussions, noting that it was important to “be kind to yourself”.
The prince, 43, and his wife, Catherine, have long made mental health support one of their key work, with their philanthropic foundation last year launching a new national suicide prevention network.
“It takes me a long time to understand my feelings and why I feel the way I do, and I feel like that's an important process to do from time to time,” Williams said.
Read | Mumbai to host Prince William's 2026 Earthshot Awards
“We need more male role models to talk about it and normalize it so that it becomes something that is second nature to all of us,” he said during the discussion. Other participants included rapper Professor Green.
“It's OK to ask for support, to ask a peer, to reach out,” Williams said.
His comments came as the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists urged the government to tackle the “silent mental health epidemic” affecting people across England.
suicide prevention
The college reported that there were 4.1 million people in contact with mental health services in England in 2024/25 – including 1.2 million children and young people, an increase of 56% over eight years.
Last year, in a video released on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, the prince fought back tears while discussing the impact of suicide with a woman whose husband had taken his own life.
In the discussion broadcast Wednesday, William — whose mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 when he was 15 — spoke about the importance of suicide prevention.
Prince William, Prince of Wales, during a tour of the Old City of AlUla, one of the most historically significant areas in the region, on the third day of his visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on February 11, 2026 in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.
“If we talk about it more and educate people more, hopefully the idea of suicide will be pushed further away because you know that tomorrow, really, you could wake up and you could feel very different.”
He also said that “No person in this world has all the tools for every event or mental state.
Williams added, “I love wandering around looking for new tools to put in my toolbox when I need one, and if we look at it that way, it normalizes the idea that the brain needs a little help sometimes.”