WILLIAM: LET’S LOSE OUR STIFF UPPER LIPS

As Harry reveals his mental torment over Diana’s death, his brother says he and Kate will bring up their children to talk openly about their emotions

Prince William today calls for the end of the ‘stiff upper lip’ culture.

Following his brother Harry’s confession that he struggled to cope with their mother’s death, William pledges to ensure his children ‘grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions’. The prince says for too long it has been taboo or weak to talk about personal issues. And he warns that while the traditional stiff upper lip has its place, it should not be at the expense of mental wellbeing.

William’s candid interview came as his brother brought mental health to the top of the agenda with a deeply personal account of his battle to cope with Princess Diana’s death.

Harry, who was only 12 when she was killed in a car crash in Paris, said he later had two years of ‘total chaos’,

often felt ‘on the verge of punching someone’ and had finally sought counselling for his demons.

His intervention earned praise from mental health charities, MPs and campaigners.

William, who has been more reluctant than Harry to show his feelings in public, does not reveal in his own interview whether he has sought help to cope with Diana’s death.

Instead he highlights the ‘ absolutely appalling’ toll of young male suicide and insists it is essential to talk through traumatic or stressful experiences.

William, who was 15 when his mother died, says: ‘For too long there has been a taboo about talking about some important issues. If you were anxious, it’s because you were weak. If you couldn’t cope with whatever life threw at you, it’s because you were failing.

‘Successful, strong people don’t suffer like that, do they? But of course – we all do. It’s just that few of us speak about it. There may be a time and a place for the stiff upper lip but not at the expense of your health.’

The prince also speaks of his children, George, three, and 11-month-old Charlotte, and the determination he shares with his wife the Duchess of Cambridge that they will be able to open up as they grow up.

William says: ‘Catherine and I are clear that we want both George and Charlotte to grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions and feelings. Over the past year we have visited a number of schools together where we have been amazed listening to children talk about some quite difficult subjects in a really clear and emotionally articulate way – something most adults would struggle with.

‘Seeing this has really given me hope that things are changing and that there is a generation coming up who find it normal to talk openly about their emotions. Emotional intelligence is key for us all to deal with the complexities of life and relationships.’

His comments will be seen as a rejection of the Royal Family’s ‘never complain, never explain’ approach, epitomised by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. They are said to have encouraged their grandsons to go hunting within hours of learning of their mother’s death – in an attempt to create some ‘normality’.

Neither prince mentions their father Charles in their interviews, though it is understood he was aware of Harry’s decision to speak openly about his grief.

A Clarence House spokesman told the Mail last night: ‘The Prince of Wales understands and supports Prince Harry’s decision to speak out on such an important issue.’

William, 34, makes his comments in a rare joint interview with Harry to the publication CALMzine, ahead of this Sunday’s London Marathon which has nominated their Heads Together organisation – a partnership of eight leading mental health campaign groups – as its official charity.

Along with the duchess, the brothers formed the umbrella group as a means of breaking a nationwide ‘stigma’ regarding the issue of mental health.

CALMzine is published by one of the Heads Together charity partners, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, which is dedicated to preventing male suicide.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 – three quarters of those who took their own lives in 2015 were men.

And while two thirds of women who have experienced depression seek help, little more than half of men can say the same.

William says he was moved to act as a result of his work as a pilot with East Anglian Air Ambulance. His first call-out was to deal with a male suicide victim – one of five attempted or successful suicides in the region every day – and he was shocked when he discovered the depth of the problem.

William praises his employers for encouraging him to speak about the difficulties he faces at work, but insists many are not so lucky. ‘Sometimes, emotions have to be put to one side to get the job done, but if you have been through an especially traumatic or stressful situation it is essential to talk it through after the event,’ he says.

And in what appeared to be a direct reference to his brother, he says: ‘If you don’t acknowledge how you feel it will only bottle up, and could reassert itself later as illness.’

His brother opened up about his personal struggles in an interview with the Daily Telegraph yesterday.

The crux came, he said, at the age of 28 when he began to suffer panic attacks during royal engagements. ‘I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.’

LIKE most of the country, the Mail has great affection for Prince Harry. From the heartbreaking pictures of the bemused, bereft schoolboy trailing behind his mother’s coffin, through his courage and dedication serving with the Army in Afghanistan to his energetic charity work, he has endeared himself to the nation.

True, he is no stranger to controversy, having made some poor decisions and fallen in with some bad company along the way, but his good humour and natural charm have been his redemption.

Now, he has bravely decided to talk about the effects on his mental health of losing his mother at 12, shattering the royal taboo on discussing personal emotions. In a candid interview, he told how he internalised his grief and rage and described how close he came to complete breakdown.

He was eventually persuaded by his ‘hugely supportive’ brother Prince William to relax his ‘ stiff upper lip’ and seek counselling. Thanks to the therapy he received, his work with injured army veterans and releasing aggression through boxing, he feels he has come to terms with his demons and that his life is now ‘in a good place’.

There will be those who believe such intimate revelations are unseemly in a senior royal, but the Mail believes this interview will do a great deal of good. Mental illness among the young is one of the great scourges of our age, with suicide rates at terrifying levels.

Hearing such a prominent young person admit to being a sufferer may give succour to thousands who feel overwhelmed, afraid and alone and encourage them to talk through their problems. Princess Diana would have been immensely proud. IT really is beyond parody. As deranged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatens to engulf the world in nuclear chaos, it emerges that the British taxpayer gave him and his henchmen £740,000 of aid in 2015. It may not seem much compared with the vast sums being squandered elsewhere, but why should we be giving anything to the most dangerous despot on the planet?