Kate risks ridicule by playing the victim

PRINCE Harry was courageous to admit he suffered depression following the death of his mother Diana. After 20 years of suppressing his feelings, he had ‘ two years of ut t e r chaos’ before seeking professional help, which got his life back on track.

His brother William spoke a few days later of ‘the shock that never leaves you’.

Harry and William commendably spearhead the Heads Together charity to eliminate the taboo surrounding mental illness and have spent the past week highlighting the issue by revealing their own past pain.

Both Princes have been rightly applauded for sharing their personal experiences and yesterday they were doing so again in a new video, in which they said they never really talked about their mum.

In these endeavours, they have been joined by Kate, who has now bared her soul, too, saying she felt lonely as a new mother. ‘You do feel isolated,’ she admitted.

Though I applaud the motive behind her comments to reassure new mums, isn’t she in danger of over-egging this campaign on mental health and leaving it open to ridicule?

For while Harry and William did suffer a truly terrible trauma, Kate has had the most idyllic and stable upbringing — a loving, nuclear family, a private education — and wanted for nothing.

She married her devoted Prince, has two healthy children, an army of domestic helpers and has never had to worry about the mortgage or gas bill.

For her to start empathising with other struggling new mothers — a single mum on a council estate, for example, or a woman abandoned by her husband — runs the risk of devaluing this carefully orchestrated Royal campaign designed to remove the stigma from mental illness.

As I said, the Princes’ determination to address mental health is a worthy cause. But it’s support people need, Kate, not faux sincerity.