{"id":432700,"date":"2026-02-18T18:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432700\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:09:09","slug":"suicide-rates-for-uk-men-are-a-national-catastrophe-says-prince-william-prince-william","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432700\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide rates for UK men are a \u2018national catastrophe\u2019, says Prince William | Prince William"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince William has called the prevalence of male suicide in the UK a \u201cnational catastrophe\u201d in a radio appearance in which he opened up about his approaches to dealing with difficult emotions.<\/p>\n

William told a special episode of Radio 1\u2019s Life Hacks that \u201cwe need more male role models\u201d to talk about their mental health publicly, to help other men do the same and make open discussions \u201csecond nature to us all\u201d.<\/p>\n

During the panel discussion about male suicide with host Greg James, which will air at 8pm on Wednesday, William reflected on his own feelings, saying: \u201cI take a long time trying to understand my emotions and why I feel like I do, and I feel like that\u2019s a really important process to do every now and again, to check in with yourself and work out why you\u2019re feeling like you do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes there\u2019s an obvious explanation, sometimes there isn\u2019t. I think that idea that mental health crisis is temporary [is important] \u2013 you can have a strong mental health crisis moment but it will pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Learn‘Learn to love yourself’: Prince William talks about mental health on Radio 1\u2019s Life Hacks \u2013 video<\/p>\n

According to the Office for National Statistics,<\/a> suicide was the leading cause of death among young people aged 20 to 34 in England and Wales in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mental health and suicide are topics that William has frequently spoken about, and his Royal Foundation is contributing \u00a31m to develop a National Suicide Prevention Network.<\/p>\n

He encouraged listeners to \u201clearn to love yourself and understand yourself\u201d, and praised support from mental health charities as \u201cthat little stepping stone\u201d to get people through difficult moments.<\/p>\n

William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, visiting a mental health charity supporting young adults across Merseyside in 2023. Photograph: WPA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAnd if we talk about that more, and educate people more, then hopefully the idea of suicide keeps being pushed further and further away. Because you know that tomorrow, you might wake up and you might feel very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if his children talked openly about their feelings, he jokingly said: \u201cSometimes too much. I get all the details, which I love; it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel also featured the rapper Professor Green, whose real name is Stephen Manderson. He has campaigned on mental health for years and previously spoke in a BBC documentary<\/a>, Suicide and Me, about losing his father to suicide.<\/p>\n

The rapper said he wanted to remind people \u201cthat these conversations are important to have and it\u2019s OK to have them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a little boy and I hate to think of him growing up in a world where he doesn\u2019t have a circle of friends that he knows he can go to, or services that he knows he can access if in a time of need, at a time when he perhaps doesn\u2019t have me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Professor Green, who is a supporter of the suicide prevention charity Calm, said he felt it was \u201cincredibly important\u201d to have the support of Prince William, \u201cnot least of all because of the openness that he shows up with, which I don\u2019t think people would necessarily expect\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s obviously gone through his own life of suffering and experience and things he\u2019s seen first-hand,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I just think it enables us to shine such a light on something that people will otherwise just avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William has called the prevalence of male suicide in the UK a \u201cnational catastrophe\u201d in a radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-432700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}