Prince William Says Celebrities Turned Down His Mental Health Campaign

Erica Gonzales
Photo credit: Nicky J Sims - Getty Images
Photo credit: Nicky J Sims - Getty Images

From Harper's BAZAAR

Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry have been tackling the stigma of mental health through their campaign, Heads Together, for a few years now. Although the initiative has gained momentum across the U.K. since it launched in May 2016, it had rough beginnings. The Duke of Cambridge revealed that they struggled to get a celebrity to publicly support the cause because it was mental health-related.

"What was very interesting from when we set up the campaign was that not one celebrity wanted to join us," he said during a panel at the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland yesterday. "Not one person wanted to be involved in the mental health campaign, Heads Together."

The Duke of Cambridge continued, "We went out to a lot of people and nobody, before we started, was interested in being a part of Heads Together-because it was mental health. That was two years, three years ago. You know, and that was a big deal."

However, people's minds changed once they were able to understand the work Heads Together was putting out. William said: "Then obviously, once we started to get the ball rolling, once we started showing people what we were going to do, people realized that Catherine, Harry, and I put our necks on the line here, that maybe actually it was okay we could join, then some very brave people came forward, from celebrities and from normal people who decided this was really important, and they bravely took on the task of speaking out about mental health."

The duke also discussed moments when he struggled with his personal mental health, especially while working as an air ambulance pilot. Referring to one experience, he said, "I get very emotional about it because it relates very closely to my children, and so it is very hard to talk about it."

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