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Prince William on Mental Health at World Economic Forum 2019

Prince William Reveals Celebs Initially Didn't Want to Be Part of His Mental Health Charity

Prince William is trying to break the stigma surrounding mental health. On Wednesday, the Duke of Cambridge got candid about the importance of mental health during a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I think now, there's a generation here that are finally realising that this is not normal, we should talk about it. We should get over it," William said. "We've got to start tackling it now so that our children and grandchildren don't have to go through this process and they can be a lot more open about [mental health]."

He got particularly emotional when he reflected on his own experience working as an air ambulance pilot. "I get very emotional about it because it relates very closely to my children and so it is very hard to talk about it," the father of three explained. "I know that if I hadn't taken the action that I did then, I would have definitely gone down a slippery slope and I would have been dealing with mental illness on a different level."

William, his wife, Kate Middleton, and his brother, Prince Harry, have been very open about discussing mental health through their Heads Together campaign. While the charity has done a lot of good for the community since it was founded in 2017, William admitted that many celebrities didn't want to get involved at first. "We ran out to a lot of people and nobody, before we started, was interested in being a part of Heads Together because it was mental health," he said.

While he didn't mention any names, some celebrities eventually came around. Lady Gaga also joined the campaign in 2017, when she participated in the #oktosay film series with William. Though Heads Together has made a big impact, William added there is still a lot more work that needs to be done to fight the stigma surrounding mental health. See what else he had to say above!

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