Content warning: This article discusses suicidal thoughts.

Prince William has launched a suicide prevention initiative that encourages people throughout British sport to recognise warning signs, begin difficult conversations and help those experiencing a crisis.

The Royal Foundation unveiled its “On Your Side” toolkit on World Suicide Prevention Day. It developed the resource with the British Standards Institution and mental health charity Chasing the Stigma.

The Football Association, Premier League, Team GB and British Cycling have pledged to introduce the toolkit within their organisations. A promotional film features England captain Harry Kane, Formula 1 driver George Russell and other leading athletes.

William provides the campaign’s central message:

“You don’t need to be an expert to support someone who’s struggling. You just need to find the courage to have the conversation.”

That is valuable advice. It is also impossible to hear without remembering what Meghan Sussex said happened when she asked the Royal Household for help.

A Worthy Initiative With An Unavoidable Contradiction

The toolkit aims to help players, coaches, volunteers, relatives and spectators identify when someone may be at risk. It encourages people to ask direct questions and connect those struggling with professional support.

Suicide prevention resources can save lives, and the organisations that created the toolkit deserve credit.

However, William cannot present himself as the face of compassionate intervention while ignoring the Royal Family’s unresolved history. The pattern predates Meghan. Princess Diana spoke publicly about experiencing postnatal depression, bulimia and self-harm. She said people around her responded by labelling her unstable instead of examining why she was suffering. Decades later, Meghan described another institutional response shaped more by appearances than by obtaining care.

In 2021, Meghan revealed that she experienced persistent suicidal thoughts while serving as a senior working royal.

She told Oprah Winfrey that she “just didn’t want to be alive anymore.” Meghan said she approached the institution and requested professional treatment but was told that leaving to receive care would not reflect well on it.

She also described contacting the Palace’s human resources department. According to Meghan, an employee expressed sympathy but explained that the department could not protect her because she was not a paid employee.

Those were separate but equally disturbing failures. One concerned access to treatment. The other exposed an employment structure that apparently left a working member of the Royal Family without meaningful institutional protection.

Buckingham Palace later said the issues were concerning, although it added that “some recollections may vary” and said the family would address the matter privately. The Palace has never publicly explained who rejected Meghan’s request, what safeguarding procedures existed or whether it changed those procedures afterwards.

William’s Slogan Should Apply Inside The Palace

There is no public evidence that William personally handled or rejected Meghan’s request for treatment. It would therefore be inaccurate to place that specific decision at his feet.

However, William remains one of the institution’s most senior representatives. He now asks sports clubs to create environments where people recognise distress and act before someone reaches crisis point. The public can reasonably ask whether the Royal Household followed that same standard when Meghan needed help.

The contradiction becomes sharper when placed beside reporting about William’s attitude toward Harry’s therapy. In 2023, Harper’s Bazaar reported on an excerpt from Omid Scobie’s Endgame in which an unnamed source claimed that William believed his brother had been “brainwashed” by an “army of therapists.”

That description came from an unnamed source, not an on-record statement from William. It should not be treated as a confirmed quotation. Harry has nevertheless described his brother as deeply sceptical of the therapeutic process that helped him confront grief and trauma.

Therapy cannot be celebrated when it fits a royal campaign and dismissed as brainwashing when it helps somebody challenge the institution.

Screenshot of Marie Claire headline by Amy Mackeldon stating Prince William is “deeply concerned” about ex-Prince Andrew’s mental health, with photo of William and Andrew at a formal event.
Marie Claire spotlights William’s reported concern for Andrew’s mental health, shifting focus from allegations to family empathy.

The contrast becomes even more jarring alongside a January report that William was “deeply concerned” about his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s mental health and how he would cope after losing his royal titles. That reported concern preceded Andrew’s arrest the following month. It also creates a grim contrast with Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager and died by suicide in April 2025. Andrew denied her allegations and settled her civil lawsuit without admitting liability.

Concern for anyone’s mental well-being should never be dismissed. However, William’s reported sympathy appears painfully selective when placed beside Giuffre’s death and the Palace’s failure to support Meghan when she disclosed that she was experiencing suicidal thoughts. A prince now urging others to recognise distress must confront how differently his institution responded when the person struggling was his sister-in-law rather than his uncle.

Harry Established the Model First

The comparison with Harry does stand because the chronology matters. Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014, two years before Harry, William and Kate Middleton launched Heads Together and five years before William introduced the football-focused Heads Up campaign.

Invictus was already demonstrating how sport could support physical rehabilitation, mental health and social connection among wounded, injured and sick service personnel. William’s later campaigns did not invent that connection.

There is no evidence that William directly copied Harry’s programme, but dismissing the comparison ignores the path Harry established first. “On Your Side” applies a similar principle to the wider sporting community: using sport to identify people in distress and connect them with support.

Mental Health Advocacy Begins With Listening

Royal campaigns often arrive with polished films, famous ambassadors and supportive headlines. Their real value depends on whether the principles survive beyond the engagement.

If William believes that people do not need specialist qualifications to support someone in distress, that lesson should apply inside palaces as readily as it applies inside football clubs. It should apply when the person struggling is a teammate, a stranger, a brother or a sister-in-law whom the institution finds inconvenient.

The “On Your Side” toolkit may do genuine good. That possibility should not prevent scrutiny of the person promoting it or the institution standing behind him.

William is asking Britain to listen when somebody says they are struggling. Meghan Sussex said exactly that. The Royal Household’s reported response was to worry about appearances and explain why it could not help.

Before the monarchy lectures the public about finding the courage to have difficult conversations, it should explain why it failed to act when that conversation happened within its own walls.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services. In Ireland and the UK, call Samaritans free on 116 123. In the United States and Canada, call or text 988. In Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Readers elsewhere can find free, confidential support through Find A Helpline, which maintains verified crisis-service information for more than 175 countries.

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