Royal family live updates: Prince William celebrates his and Kate Middleton’s mental health initiative reaching huge milestone
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Prince William and Kate Middleton are helping those in need.
Shout — the U.K.’s first 24-hour text message service for those with struggling with mental health challenges — has hit three million conversations.
It’s a huge milestone for the initiative, which was set up in 2019 with backing from The Prince and Princess of Wales Royal Foundation.
On Thursday, Prince William, 42, visited Mental Health Innovations, which was established by the foundation in 2017.
MHI has since merged with another charity, The Mix, as the two will combine resources and expertise to help the citizens of the country’s mental health.
In 2019, Prince William promised to train as a volunteer and has since participated by taking calls anonymously to help give advice.
In 2020, on Shout’s first anniversary, William and Kate video called volunteers who worked tirelessly during the pandemic.
“You guys are the trailblazers, you have been doing a fantastic job keeping Shout moving forward, so well done and thank you for all your hard work; we really appreciate it,” the future king told them at the time.
With love, the royal family won’t be tuning in.
After Meghan Markle’s Netflix show “With Love, Meghan,” premiered on Tuesday, a source told Vanity Fair that Prince William and Kate Middleton have “zero interest” in watching.
“The king knows more than enough about beekeeping. Besides, he’s far too busy to sit down and watch it,” they added about King Charles.
In episode one, titled “Hello, Honey!”, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, harvests honey from her beehives. Coincidently, King Charles, 76, and the Princess of Wales, 43, are beekeepers themselves, with Buckingham Palace having four beehives on property.
According to a friend of the royals, “There’s very little to actually learn from Meghan’s TV show. I suspect that [the royal family] will be quite dismissive of it. I can’t imagine Kate and William will sit down and watch it. Why would they?”
The eight-episode show has received mixed reviews. Throughout the series, Markle hosts a slew of guests including Mindy Kaling, Tatcha skincare brand founder Vicky Tsai, and food truck chef Roy Choito at a rented home in Montecito, California.
But the “Suits” actress wasn’t fazed by negative remarks.
“For more recipes, fun and reasons to ‘Mmmm’, check out the show — which in just 24 hours is already in the Top 10,” Markle wrote on her Instagram Story on Wednesday.
“Thank you to all of you around the world who are tuning in! ,” she added with a clip from the show.
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Meghan Markle has sparked confusion about what her last name is, after she told Mindy Kaling on her Netflix show that she goes by “Sussex.”
She was also called “Meghan Sussex” during her appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Thursday.
Markle technically became “Meghan Sussex,” and Prince Harry became “Harry Sussex,” after their royal wedding in 2018. They received the Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles from the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding present, and got to keep those titles after they left the royal family in 2020.
Meanwhile, Markle and Harry’s kids Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, officially became Sussexes and finally inherited their “prince” and “princess” titles when King Charles III ascended the throne in May 2023 after Queen Elizabeth’s death.
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Meghan Markle displayed “wariness” in her interview with Drew Barrymore, body language expert Judi James has claimed.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, made a rare TV appearance on the actress’ eponymous talk show Thursday, where she appeared visibly uncomfortable with Barrymore’s tactile nature during the conversation, James told the Daily Mail.
While the “50 First Dates” star is known for her touchy-feely approach with guests, the “Suits” alum seemed less enthusiastic about Barrymore’s interview style, James claims.
“This is a rare pose from Meghan, who is normally the first one to move in with the hugs to register the warm, spontaneously tactile side that was apparently met with a tsunami of ice water from the royal firm back in the UK,” James told the outlet.
“Meghan adopted a straight, polite, more regal-looking pose, perhaps mirroring the kind of response she was met with from the UK royals when she was busy hugging them.”
“Her hand was hanging in her pocket rather than reciprocating the display of affection and she flashed a wide social smile at the camera rather than tilting her head in a reciprocal gesture,” she added.
During the pair’s conversation, Barrymore, 50, “clings relentlessly, curling her arms around Meghan’s waist in a partial koala embrace and tilting her head to nestle against Meghan’s locks,” James says.
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Meghan Markle is celebrating the success of her Netflix show, “With Love, Meghan” — despite it being mercilessly dragged by a slew of critics following its release Tuesday.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, rushed to social media Wednesday to share that the series had reached the streamer’s Top 10 list within 24 hours of its release.
The former working royal thanked fans around the globe for watching the 8-part series, which sees her share tips and tricks for hosting at home with appearances from several of her celebrity pals.
“For more recipes, fun and reasons to ‘Mmmm’, check out the show — which in just 24 hours is already in the Top 10,” Markle wrote on her Instagram Story.
“Thank you to all of you around the world who are tuning in! ,” she concluded her message alongside a snippet from the show.
The show, which boasts eight episodes roughly 30 minutes long, sits in the 6th spot on the US Netflix chart as of Thursday morning.
READ MORE
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Prince of Wales: I was terrified when I volunteered at mental health helpline
Future monarch admits conversations with those in crisis took emotional toll
The Prince of Wales has spoken about the emotional toll of volunteering at a crisis helpline for young people, describing his first shift as “terrifying”.
The Prince said he hoped he had done enough to help people during his stint volunteering with Shout 85258, a round-the-clock text messaging helpline developed by his Royal Foundation and launched in 2020.
“I did volunteering for a bit back over Covid, and some of those conversations lived with me for quite a long time afterwards,” he told members of a youth advisory board during an engagement in west London.
“You always say to yourself, ‘did I give enough, did I do enough, did I find the right answer?’”
On Thursday, the future king was visiting Mental Health Innovations (MHI), a charity established by the Royal Foundation, to mark its merger last year with The Mix, a digital youth support charity.
He was shown a new website for The Mix that goes live later this year which has been streamlined and made user friendly.
He said: “The resource thing is really important because when you’re in a mental health crisis the last thing you want to do is read more stuff.”
The youth advisory team also showed the Prince a proposed online tool to help volunteers provide answers to clients. He said of his initial session: “The first one was quite terrifying.”
Before ending his conversation with the young board, he told them: “You guys are going to be the thermometer of the nation.”
Experts, including Lord Darzi, Prof Sir Simon Wessely, and Peter Fonagy, presented data on the UK’s growing mental health crisis.
The Prince expressed concern about the increasing number of children reaching out for help and asked if the age of users was getting younger.
He was told that children as young as eight had used the service to discuss self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“We are digging into some of the real bad things in society,” the Prince said, referring to the scale of the crisis.
Since the merger, MHI has focused on offering more one-to-one care, providing what was described as a “first aid kit for mental health”.
The Prince stressed the importance of preventative care, saying mental health support should not be reserved for those in crisis. He praised the thousands of young volunteers stepping forward to help, noting that “40 per cent are under 25”.
He added: “Volunteering is flexible, which is really good.”
Impressed by the charity’s impact, he asked: “Do you know how many people’s lives you’ve saved?”
He was told that there had been 35,000 active “rescues”, with cases handed on to the emergency services.
Encouraging the team to continue pushing boundaries, the Prince said: “Well done for putting so much time into getting it where it is.”
First aid kit
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William sees how text messages save young lives
A support service that lets young people text for help when they’re in an emergency mental health crisis has now had three million conversations, with 2,000 messages arriving each day.
The Prince of Wales visited the project in west London which provides 24/7 free text message support for young people with problems, including suicidal thoughts, but who would be unlikely to pick up a phone to talk.
The Shout service responds to emergency messages seeking help, which might come in emojis and text speak, and often late at night.
Among the volunteers staffing this service, designed to be accessible for a digital generation, is Ben West, whose brother Sam took his own life in 2018.
“How amazing is it, from my point of view, after what Sam went through and losing Sam, to be able to sit there and tell someone texting they’re not on their own any more,” said Ben.
“We’re going to come up with a plan together, and we can spend some time chatting and we can get you to a place where you’re more in control.
“I’ve had conversations where people have told me something they’ve never told anybody else before in their lives. It’s a privilege to be on the other end of that,” said Ben, one of 2,000 current volunteers responding to texts to “Shout 85258”.
Prince William met Ben and other young advisers to the project, hearing about helping young people who might have been reluctant to try other mental health services.
“Young people much prefer to talk via text, it’s become their language anyway… they find it much more accessible and much less intimidating to text someone than speak on the phone,” said Ben.
The Shout helpline was launched in 2018 by Mental Health Innovations, a charity set up by the Royal Foundation, reflecting the prince’s longstanding interest in mental health, having helped set up the Heads Together project.
Prince William was himself a volunteer on the text helpline, after receiving training, during the Covid pandemic, saying his first shift was “terrifying”.
“Some of those conversations lived with me for quite a long time afterwards, and you always say to yourself, ‘Did I give enough, did I do enough, did I find the right answer?'” said Prince William.
“It’s more than just a text line, it’s life saving,” said the prince. He was told that on 35,000 occasions emergency services had intervened directly when people getting in touch seemed to be in imminent danger.
The text message helpline makes it easier for those already struggling to share their feelings. “Sam, my brother, was really embarrassed about his diagnosis of depression, for him it felt like a flaw and something to hide,” said Ben, who since his brother’s suicide has campaigned to improve mental health services.
There are other at-risk groups who can also use the service, who might otherwise be reluctant to speak about their feelings, including middle-aged men.
Victoria Hornby, chief executive of Mental Health Innovations, said there has been an increase in the “severity” of the problems faced by those seeking help, since the scheme was first launched in 2018.
The percentage of messages from people with suicidal thoughts has risen from 25% to 37%, she said,
Among the other reasons for getting in touch was about low mood, stress, relationship problems, self-harming, loneliness and issues such as body image or tensions about sexuality.
There has also been a significant increase in calls for help from a younger age group, those aged 13 and under, which she said seemed to be part of a growing sense of anxiety and pressure on children’s lives.
Sunday night is the single busiest time for calls, she said, reflecting the pressures people feel before going into the new week, whether at school, college or work.
It’s a moment when a text message exchange, away from other people, can be the way to get help, she said: “You can’t be overheard. For some people having to say out loud things that are incredibly difficult, that can stop people from reaching for help.”
The text helpline is merging with another support service aimed at young people, the Mix, and there is an aim for a wider range of support services, including peer-to-peer mentoring and counselling.
Prince William spoke of the importance of support after that initial contact and education services to help people before their problems are too overwhelming.
“Prevention is really important, before things go spiralling down,” he said.
A report into the project by Imperial College London said such digital services could help tackle the waiting times for help with mental health problems, with 1.5 million waiting for treatment, including 100,000 children and young people.
The report said that two thirds of those who had got in touch with Shout had felt calmer from the exchange.
“We’ve saved lives. It’s an amazing feeling. I just wish this service existed when Sam needed it, someone like me, to talk to. Had that existed then who knows what might have happened,” said Ben.
Barnaby Spicer died within weeks of being released from a mental health centre in Shrewsbury.
Failures are identified at the Coventry mental health facility after the death of a man in his room.
Study finds mental health patients are reluctant to complain about abuse for fear of staff revenge.
Prince William made the comment while visiting a wellbeing centre at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists worries children and young people will be put at risk, as demand rises.
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