THE INTERVIEW

BG: I’m very excited for our first guest on this podcast, we have Prince Harry.

HRH: Hello.

BG: Hello. Yeah, you’re the first guest. We’ve set the bar high.

HRH: Fantastic.

BG: Unless you can ask your granny if she fancies coming on next week?

HRH: Umm, I think she only signs herself up for video auditions and stuff like that, she’s not so into the podcast thing yet. I’ve got to admit, I don’t really listen to podcasts so this could be interesting.

BG: Really? Well, it’s just like a chat. Thank you for coming on, it means a lot. So how are you? Really, how are you really right now? Because we ask that question to each other about a hundred times a day, don’t we? And we all go, ‘Fine, yeah, fine,’ but I think that Heads Together and the work you’re doing is all about changing the conversation about mental health.

So… how are you today, really?

HRH: You know what, I have spent most of my life saying ‘I’m fine’, and I’ve used exactly the conversation we’ve just had there as an example with so many other people. People say, ‘How are you? How are you?’ ‘I’m fine, I’m fine . . .’ Saying fine is so much better than having to go into the details because as soon as you say, ‘Oh you know, so and so…’ then there is another question that follows that and then another question and most of us are not up for going that deep. So today I’m OK. I’m a little bit nervous, a little bit tight in the chest but otherwise fine. Ha!

BG: Don’t be nervous. I won’t bite, I promise. So let’s talk about Heads Together and the work you are doing. I’m doing the marathon for Heads Together. Which is literally mental. It’s the most mental thing I’ve ever done and I’ve done some quite mad things.

HRH: [laughs] That’s what I’ve heard.

BG: You guys could have put your name to any charitable cause but why did mental health stand out for you?

HRH: A combination of reasons really. One was the fact that because of all the charity work that William, Catherine and I have been doing, whether that’s homelessness, whether it’s kids and early intervention and stuff like that, and obviously my connection with veterans – everywhere we go there is a conversation that happens with someone that we’ve spoken to that links it into a mental health conversation of sorts. And all of us came and put our heads together – funnily enough – and we thought it would be really good if we could somehow capture the interest of the whole of the UK and make sure we can somehow change the tide on mental health specifically, because it’s linked into so many different things. And while all of this was happening we kept meeting people that were struggling. And we thought, well look, the three of us have never come together on an issue, because the idea of working together was probably a little bit daunting, but it’s great fun and we all have different passions and we all have different reasons for doing it, and yes, fine, we have personal reasons but the main reason was it seemed to be the right time. People seem to be talking about it, and we just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to change the conversation and to get the whole of this country on board?’ Because the experience I have had is that once you start talking about it you suddenly realise you’re actually part of quite a big club.

BG: Yeah, it’s a real community.

HRH: It’s a real community and everyone’s gagging to talk about it. I don’t know whether it is being British and having this stiff upper lip or whether it’s just us not being in touch with our emotions, or not being cool to talk about it or being a weakness, all this sort of stuff. You know specifically during the last five or six years, after talking with the lads that have left the military and experienced post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, panic attacks and alcoholism, having those conversations with those guys it became blindingly obvious to me that even if it was a small problem in your youth, something – Afghanistan, in a lot of these cases – was the trigger for all of these issues to come forward. It just became obvious to us that no matter who you are, a conversation has to happen, that has to be the beginning. Because otherwise how are you ever going to know how to solve it?

BG: No one has ever got better from a mental health issue by not talking about it, you don’t have to suffer in silence. So you mentioned there were personal reasons. I obviously don’t want to be too nosy because I don’t really know you that well.