The Duchess of Sussex has spoken about her struggles with mental health and suicidal thoughts as she and her husband launched an initiative to tackle child safety online.
Meghan, who revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey three years ago that she thought of taking her own life while a working royal, said she hoped by speaking out she could help others.
“When you’ve been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey – certainly part of mine – is being able to be really open about it,” she said on Sunday in a joint interview with Prince Harry on the US network CBS.
“And you know, I haven’t really scraped the surface on my experience. But I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way. And I would never want someone else to be making those sort of plans. And I would never want someone else to not be believed.
“So, if me voicing what I have overcome will save someone, or encourage someone in their life to really genuinely check in on them and not assume that the appearance is good, so everything’s OK, then that’s worth it. I’ll take a hit for that.”
The duchess, 43, was speaking as the couple, parents to Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, launched the Parents’ Network, in association with their Archewell Foundation, to provide an online community and resources to help combat social media harm. The No Child Lost to Social Media campaign was set up after a two-year pilot programme with families whose children had felt the harmful effects of social media.
Prince Harry said the grief these families had suffered could happen to anyone. “We always talk about in the olden days if your kids were under your roof, you knew what they were up to. At least they were safe, right? And now, they could be in the next-door room on a tablet or on a phone and can be going down these rabbit holes. And before you know it, within 24 hours, they could be taking their life.”
In the couple’s 2021 interview with Winfrey, Meghan told the chatshow host: “Look, I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he suffered. But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it … and I just didn’t want to be alive any more. That was a clear, real, frightening and constant thought.”
Speaking of the Parents’ Network, she told CBS on Sunday: “I think you have to start somewhere, to look at it through the lens of, ‘What if it was my daughter? What if it was my son? My son, or my daughter who comes home, who are joyful, who I love, and one day, right under my roof, our entire lives change because of something that was completely out of our control?’” She said that, for a parent, the only way to look at the problem was to try to find a solution.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
