Low-key visit ‘means lives saved’
Cafe cuppa for Duke and Duchess pushes taboo topic into global spotlight
Mission accomplished. Over a cuppa and cake in a quintessentially Kiwi cafe, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex pushed one of the last taboos further into the spotlight.
Mental health, specifically the need for people to feel comfortable talking about it and asking for help, was the focus of their visit to the Maranui Cafe — a jaunty Wellington institution above the surf lifesaving club in Lyall Bay.
There, Prince Harry and Meghan met three tables of young people from organisations such as Voices of Hope, Key to Life, Lifeline and the national 1737 helpline service.
Their interest and Harry’s willingness to talk about his own battles will have had a significant and swift impact, according to one guest.
“Today I guarantee that lives were saved,” said Jazz Thornton, cofounder of Voices of Hope, a group promoting mental wellbeing, empowerment and recovery.
“It means that people begin to realise that mental health doesn’t discriminate, that it doesn’t matter if you’re the Prince, or if you are a student or if you are a male or a female — everyone has mental health and anyone can struggle with it.”
Mental health has been one of the Prince’s signature issues since his extraordinarily frank interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph last year.
Now 34, he revealed he sought counselling after two years of “total chaos” in his late 20s while still struggling with the aftermath of the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Encouraged to ask for professional help by his brother, Prince William, Harry had reached “a good place”.
The brothers, and William’s wife Catherine, now run Heads Together, an initiative aiming to tackle the
Everyone has mental health and anyone can struggle with it. Jazz Thornton, Voices of Hope
stigma around mental health and raise money for new services.
The subject was a key part of his final speech on the Australian leg of their tour. He told the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games for wounded, sick or injured armed services veterans that mental wellbeing was more important than physical fitness because “without it, we cannot survive, let alone thrive”.
No one at Maranui was in any doubt of the couple’s sincerity.
“They’re so genuine and so down to earth and so passionate,” said Thornton. “Knowing they’re not just people who will say one thing on camera and then act a different way . . . what they present is who they are and I love that so much.”
While Harry drove the discussion, his wife expressed surprise when Thornton’s co-founder Genevieve Mora said some in New Zealand consider people who ask for help to be attention-seeking.
“Meghan was really shocked to hear that,” said Thornton.
Also shocking is that Kiwi suicides have risen four years in a row. The rate among 15 to 19-year-olds is the highest in the developed world.
Lifeline clinical manager Renee Mathews, who was on the same table as the Voices of Hope duo, said the Prince didn’t make too much reference to the scale of the NZ problem.
“But he did say he was speaking to the PM about it [on Sunday], about how it’s a huge issue now and it needs to be addressed so he’s obviously got some background knowledge.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern later said mental health was among issues she discussed with the couple.
“I came away being even more certain that they are very, very genuine in their passion for this area and are very focused on it.”
Ezekiel Raui, youth development director with the Key to Life Trust, was meeting the royal couple for the second time in five months. Flown to London as part of the Queen’s Young Leaders initiative, he saw them at Buckingham Palace in June.
Unfortunately there was not enough collaboration in the mental health sector, Raui said, in part because the path to government funding pitted “genuine people against each other”. But yesterday’s meeting had highlighted the need for better communication.
“Based on my discussions with everyone who attended . . . we’re not necessarily going to wait for [organisations] to say this is what we’re doing. Between the young people we’ve decided that we’re . . . going to make it happen.”
Raui was part of the third and final group to meet the royals.
Summing up, Harry backed Raui’s call for intergenerational change. He said there was no “silver bullet” to improving mental health “and I think people need to understand that”.
With that, the couple rose. There was time to pose for photos and receive some gifts.
From Lifeline a bag and baby outfit celebrating the organisation’s “72 Club” campaign — a twist on the socalled 27 Club which reflects the large number of musicians who took their lives at that age. From the cafe, a box containing a T-shirt and book about the building’s long history.
As they left, Meghan, by then wearing a badge promoting the 1737 helpline beside the poppy on her Club Monaco coat, told the group: “You’re all doing really excellent work,” before starting a round of applause.
Then Harry placed his right hand affectionately on his wife’s shoulder and they were gone.