Prince William and Lady Gaga chat over FaceTime to end 'shame' of talking about mental health

Fiona Simpson18 April 2017

Prince William has teamed up with Lady Gaga in a bid to bring an end to the "shame" of talking about mental health.

In a video broadcast live on Facebook, William and Lady Gaga chatted about how important speaking freely about mental health can be in helping to shatter the stigma around it.

The discussion came as part of this year’s Time to Talk Day for the Heads Together charity mental health campaign after Lady Gaga recently penned a moving open letter to fans about living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The Born This Way singer told William: “It made me very nervous at first, for me waking up every day and feeling sad and going on stage is very hard to describe

Mental health: Prince William talks to Lady Gaga
Twitter/Kensington Palace

“There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness, you feel like there is something wrong with you.

"In my life I go ‘oh my goodness, look at all these beautiful wonderful things that I have, I should be so happy’, but you can’t help it if you wake up in the morning and you are so tired and you are so sad and you are so full of anxiety that you can barely think.

“It’s like saying, this is a part of me and that’s okay.”

Speaking out: Lady Gaga speaks to Prince William about mental health
Twitter/Kensington Palace

William praised the artist on her courage over speaking out and encouraged others to do the same.

The Duke said: "It's time that everyone speaks up and really feels very normal about mental health, it's the same as physical health.

“Everybody has mental health and we shouldn't be ashamed of it and just having a conversation with a friend or family member can really make such a difference.

“For me, the little bits that I’ve learnt so far is that it’s really important to have this conversation. You won’t be judged.

“It’s really important to break open that fear and that taboo that will only lead to more problems down the line.”

The father-of-two, who with his brother Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge have championed the Heads Together campaign, has called for an end to the "stiff upper lip" culture, saying he wants Prince George and Princess Charlotte to be able to talk about their emotions.

It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May praised Prince Harry for his bravery in revealing that he sought counselling to come to terms with the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in