Prince William likes a cheeky Nando’s as the perfect pick-me-up, he reveals in a frank chat about his mental health.
Vowing to tackle mental health issues for years to come, the Duke of Cambridge tells how he suffered anxiety of his own while growing up in the public eye.
He also speaks to footballers who have suffered issues themselves or lost loved ones to suicide.
The FA president says: “Suicide is one of the biggest killers of young men under 45. Men seem to have a real issue with opening up and being able to talk about it. If we can have a major impact on lowering suicide rates that is a success from this campaign.
“It’s a big challenge and I don’t expect to fix it in one, two or even maybe 10 campaigns, but ultimately it is about extending that conversation and telling people it is OK to talk about it.”
In BBC1 documentary Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health tonight, an amateur footballer who works in Nando’s asks if the chicken chain gets the royal seal of approval. William says: “I like Nando’s, everyone likes a Nando’s.” Asked when he last had one, he says: “It was a while ago, the policeman who’s on with me again now, he’s the one who gets me into Nando’s the whole time.”
William, 37, who has long campaigned on mental health with wife Kate, 38, says he had anxiety when he began public speaking.
He adds: “Certain days, and certain speeches when I was growing up, you definitely got a bit of anxiety – thinking, ‘This has got to go right, I can’t mess this up’, and there were a lot of people watching.” He said his anxiety on such occasions lessened as his eyesight got worse and he could no longer see the audience’s eyes.
The documentary follows on from last year’s BBC1 film A Royal Team Talk, where he met football stars for a candid conversation about the importance of men’s mental health.
- Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health is on BBC1 tonight at 8.05pm
