LONDON — Prince William has fought back tears during an emotional conversation with a woman who lost her husband to suicide, in a video released by Kensington Palace Friday.
William, 43, was speaking to campaigner Rhian Mannings at her home in south Wales. Mannings lost her one-year-old son, George suddenly in 2012 to an undiagnosed illness. Five days later, her husband Paul died by suicide. Mannings said Paul blamed himself for their son's death.
Mannings has since used her experience to launch a charity aimed at supporting parents who suffer the loss of a child or young adult.
The video was released on World Mental Health Day to highlight suicide prevention efforts. The Prince and Princess of Wales’ Royal Foundation is launching a new National Suicide Prevention Network, aiming to bring charities together to transform suicide prevention in the U.K. Manning’s charity 2Wish will be part of the network. According to statistics cited in the video, someone in the U.K. dies by suicide every 90 minutes.
“I will forever go over those last few days with him wondering what I missed," Mannings says about her Paul's suicide. "We were just so happy and I think this just shows it really can happen to anyone.”
William, the heir to the throne, asked Mannings what she would say to her late husband if she could.
“I would just like to sit him down like this and just say, ‘Why didn’t you come to me?’ Because he’s missed out on just so much joy, and we would have been OK. And I think that’s what the hardest thing is, we would have been OK,” Mannings tells William, who then becomes visibly emotional.
"Are you OK?" Mannings asks the prince, who takes time to gather himself before continuing. "It's hard to ask these questions," William says.
“The best way to prevent suicide is to talk about it. Talk about it early, talk about it with your loved ones, those you trust, your friends,” William says.
William's willingness to show openness and vulnerability in public is a marked departure from previous generations of royals, for whom public shows of emotion were rare. In a recent interview with Canadian actor and comedian Eugene Levy, William said that 2024 as the hardest he's ever had, as he coped with both his wife, Catherine and his father, King Charles going through battles with cancer.
William has also dealt with a breakdown in his relationship with his brother, Prince Harry since the younger royal stepped back from duties in 2020.
William told Levy of his interest in modernizing the monarchy when he becomes king, saying that "change for good" was on his agenda. He went on to say that he hopes the royal family doesn’t “go back to some of the practices in the past” that he and Harry grew up with.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
