Royal Family News: Three Royal Family Members Who Were Open About Therapy

British royal family news reveals that several members of the United Kingdome Royal family have been open about their mental health, talking about the challenges and struggles they’ve faced.

Princess Diana is often cited as the first royal to speak candidly about therapy, seeking treatment for bulimia and postpartum depression. Years later her sons Prince Harry and Prince William along with Kate Middleton organized the mental health project Heads Together.

Here are three members of the UK’s royal family who have raised awareness about the importance of mental health by talking about the need for psychological counseling.

#1 Prince Harry Duke Of Sussex

Royal Family news shows that Prince Harry has talked about his therapeutic journey after losing his mother Princess Diana when he was 12. “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and all sorts of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle,” he said in 2017 on Bryony Gordon’s podcast Mad World.

He said that he had been, “shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years. My way of dealing with it was sticking my head in the sand, refusing to ever think about my mum because why would that help?”

Harry ultimately saw a therapist, “more than a couple of times. The experience I have had is that once you start talking about it, you realize that actually, you’re part of quite a big club. I can’t encourage people enough to just have that conversation because you will be surprised firstly, how much support you get and secondly, how many people literally are longing for you to come out.”

#2 Princess Diana

Diana infamously said during her BBC Panorama interview in 1995, “Well, maybe I was the first person ever to be in this family who ever had a depression or was ever openly tearful. And obviously that was daunting, because if you’ve never seen it before how do you support it?”

She said she was in therapy for post-partum depression, bulimia, and marital issues. She said, “You’d wake up in the morning feeling you didn’t want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself.”

She added that she, “received a great deal of treatment.”

#3 Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton and Prince William referred to mental health challenges when they launched Heads Together. Kate talked about the, “overwhelming experience” of becoming a mother saying, “There is no rule book, no right or wrong; you just have to make it up and do the very best you can to care for your family. For many mothers, myself included, this can at times lead to a lack of confidence and feelings of ignorance.”

She added, “Sadly, for some mothers, this experience can be made so much harder due to challenges with our very mental health.”

Kate approached the stigma associated with therapy by saying, “If any of us caught a fever during pregnancy, we would seek advice and support from a doctor. Getting help with our mental health is no different. Our children need us to look after ourselves and get the support we need.”

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