Harry’s partner for mental health TV series already has the sofa
Duke and Oprah Winfrey to work on documentaries as the Sussexes take their work global
THE Duke of Sussex is to collaborate with Oprah Winfrey on a series of mental health documentaries as part of his promise to help people find their “purpose-driven self ”.
Announcing the move on the Sussexes’ Instagram page, the Duke said the series, to be made by Apple, would be “positive, enlightening and inclusive”, offering viewers the chance to “understand ourselves and those around us better”.
The Duke and Duchess are increasingly targeting a global audience for their work, which has focused on issues of this kind.
“I truly believe that good mental health – mental fitness – is the key to powerful leadership, productive communities and a purpose-driven self,” said the Duke in a written message.
The streamed television series would help “accelerate change for a more compassionate, connected and positive society”, he added.
“It is a huge responsibility to get this right as we bring you the facts, the science and the awareness of a subject
Guest presenter? Royal watchers wonder if Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will join the Duke and Winfrey, right, in the Apple venture
that is so relevant during these times.” The collaboration follows months of discussions during which the Sussexes have become increasingly close to Winfrey and other celebrities.
Winfrey, a US talk show host and media executive, was a guest at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May, and her best friend, the TV personality Gayle King, attended the Duchess’s baby shower in New York this year.
Appearing on King’s US breakfast TV show yesterday, Winfrey said she had told the Duke about the forthcoming mental health series and he wondered aloud “if there’s anything I can do to help”. She also said the Duchess was “being portrayed unfairly” by the media.
The Sussexes’ loyal fan base yesterday expressed hopes that the Duchess would join in with the venture and take part in on-screen interviews.
Last month Winfrey signed a multiyear deal with Apple and appeared at the celebrity-heavy launch of the Apple TV+ streaming service.
It is understood that the Duke has asked the tech giant to make a donation to mental health charities instead of paying him a fee.
Reports suggest that the Duchess of Sussex plans to give birth at home, just as the Queen did. While I’ve no doubt Meghan will be extremely well organised and looked after, nothing – not even all these months of relentless media scrutiny – will prepare her for all the judgment and unhelpful comments. Having had two wonderful home births, I know the unwelcome and almost always unresearched opinions come thick and fast, right up until labour day and beyond.
Why, like Meghan, Meryl Streep, Demi Moore, Davina Mccall and Gisele Bündchen, did I choose not to go the route of modern convention? I’m not remotely hippie, not antiestablishment, very much not an earth mother and have no axe to grind. I have enormous faith in medical professionals and great pride in the NHS. But I was born at home, as were two of my brothers, and I feel most relaxed, at ease and in control in my own house. The fear of chaos and noise, loss of privacy, of doctors watching clocks and hospital guidelines and suggesting we cut things short with intervention, of being left alone for hours on end, not being able to eat, listen to music, open a window, and in particular, spend the night with my family – it all made me very anxious.
I instinctively knew an anxious environment wasn’t the right one in which to safely deliver my baby, and my NHS midwives and GP agreed.
Every mother is entitled to be considered for delivery at home, and to change GPS if her requests are stonewalled. Like Meghan’s, my pregnancies were healthy and normal and therefore ideal for planned home birth. Nonetheless, I researched thoroughly and felt reassured that the hospital was nearby if things didn’t go as they should or I needed more pain relief (most home birth hospital transfers happen because the mother decides on an epidural, or she or the baby are too tired and stressed to continue without assistance.) We can only choose so much – nature should always have the casting vote.
Meghan will, yet again, be accused of being contrary and wilful; too American, New Age and modern, all for engaging, ironically, in the same practice as our beloved Queen. But what she and Harry have reportedly signed up for is not the primalscreaming, placenta-eating, primitive affair people might imagine. A home birthing family can usually expect two midwives (sometimes with students present to observe), the same gas and air canisters as in wards, and a load of other paraphernalia to check the baby’s progress, perform minor surgery and repair, and deal with resuscitation emergencies.
Their side of the bargain includes a duvet they won’t miss when it inevitably ends up in a bin bag (top tip, Duchess: Primark), clean towels and an anglepoise lamp in case of stitches. Harry, or any home birth partner, is there to support mother and team, fetch supplies, make up a fresh bed and provide a steady flow of tea. Before midwives leave, they perform all the necessary checks on mother and baby, help latch him or her on to the breast and arrange to visit the following day. Throughout the entire process, the mother is never left alone, as is commonplace in hospital.
I support wholeheartedly any woman’s decision to deliver in hospital, birth centre, pool, or operating theatre for that matter.
I just wish that those who’d never make my decision would extend home birthers the same courtesy, or at the very least acquaint themselves with the facts.
Relatives, colleagues, strangers who knew not the first thing about it, told me constantly that home birth was unsafe. In fact, the stats say planned home birth, in real terms, is as safe as hospital delivery. The word “planned” here is essential, because too often all home births are lumped in together.
A woman who goes into spontaneous labour too early is obviously ideally better off in hospital. Ditto teenage girls, who either don’t realise or ignore the fact that they’re pregnant and give birth in the downstairs loo. Then there are women who have sudden labours and very fast deliveries at home, or the frankly irresponsible minority who choose “freebirthing”, ie, no medical assistance.
These cases are often plonked under the same umbrella, which only skews stats and public opinion. Planned home births like mine or Meghan’s are organised in conjunction with a GP, hospital and midwife team, and ultimately signed off by a consultant obstetrician if there are any doubts.
When people aren’t sounding alarm bells, they’re sniping to home birth families about perceived cost to the taxpayer, a spectacular failing in maths, which neglects to consider that interventions, obstetricians, anaesthetists, epidurals, hospital beds and Caesareans (far more common at the end of a planned hospital birth, chiefly because epidurals slow labour) are all infinitely more costly than two qualified midwives with basic pain relief drugs in someone’s home, using their water, electricity and linens.
Less than two hours after the first contraction of my second labour, I was in my own bed, in clean pyjamas, my favourite tea mug in one hand and a contentedly breastfeeding boy in the other. The house felt calm, familiar, relaxed, and I was on cloud nine. I hope that after nine months of such ludicrous scrutiny and judgment, Meghan might enjoy the same.