The Prince of Wales has described how his mental health “deteriorated” while volunteering as an air ambulance pilot.
William told a panel discussion on suicide prevention how he felt he was “carrying everyone’s emotional baggage” as a pilot.
The prince, who worked for the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) between March 2015 and July 2017, encouraged men to talk about their mental health on an episode of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks.
William on BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks
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During the hour-long episode, William said it was a “national catastrophe” that men’s suicide rates were not more widely discussed.
In the UK, men account for 75 per cent of deaths by suicide, amounting to 6,242 between February 2023 and January 2025.
William said: “It’s really important you have those moments where you take stock. The biggest example for me was when I was doing work with the air ambulance, I was a pilot flying with them. We had busy jobs and you had people sadly in very difficult situations where you were having to help them and work with them.
“Over time, I noticed my mental health really deteriorating, and I hadn’t really clocked on to it because in that community you try and make light of some of the moments just to keep, frankly, sane and just to keep going.
“It wasn’t until I stepped out of it on a longer break that I looked at myself and I thought: ‘My god, I’m carrying everyone’s emotional baggage.’ What I was doing, I was taking snippets of each job I’ve been on, each family member that had been distraught or whatever, and I was carrying that in myself, and it was really weighing me down.”
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William advocated for better mental health support for blue-light workers, including enforced breaks.
He called for more “male role models” to improve society-wide understanding of men’s mental health during the discussion, which included celebrities and mental health advocates.
Professor Green, Guvna B and William in the studio
ANDREW PARSONS / KENSINGTON PALACE
The episode is available on BBC Sounds and iPlayer and will be broadcast on Radio 1 at 8pm on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the King went on a tour of Sir Idris Elba’s old school and told the actor he was “very proud” of him.
Charles and Camilla visited Barking & Dagenham College in East London, where Elba completed a Btec national diploma in performing arts.
Sir Idris Elba takes the King on a tour of his old school and shares a joke or two
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Elba won a place in the National Youth Music Theatre with a £1,500 Prince’s Trust Grant, the King’s charity that supports young people at risk of exclusion and unemployment.
The pair have worked together before and the King greeted Elba by saying: “Fancy seeing you here.” Elba then showed Charles and Camilla the Idris Elba Studio, a professional film and TV facility, where students were working on a virtual production with an LED media wall.
He joked to the King: “We are hoping that we could do an improvisation together.”
King hails Idris Elba as a “real inspiration” as he visits film school
The King laughed it off, saying: “Oh yes of course”, before telling students: “He’s a real inspiration.”
Elba replied: “I said to them: ‘Who are you most nervous to meet, me or the King’? They said: ‘The King’.”
Charles said: “Well I’m very proud of you.”
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Elba said afterwards: “It’s quite surreal. When you share a bit of your history — I’ve known His Majesty for a long time through the Prince’s Trust — and he’s always heard stories of my journey but now he gets to see where it started. It’s nice to share that. It deepens his knowledge of me and understanding of where I’ve come from and the types of students that come to these places. I’m one of them.”
On the benefits of the Prince’s Trust, Elba said: “More than the money, it was the confidence.
“Even though I didn’t think I could get into the National Youth Music Theatre, auditioning for the Prince’s Trust and then granting me that money gave me the confidence, not only the facility financially, but the confidence to be like ‘I’m doing this’.”